Cooking Items Found Inside Forest In Khurda, Presence Of Maoists Suspected

Khurda: Security personnel seized some cooking items inside Gojamundia hill forest near Deuli village in Odisha’s Khurda district late on Thursday.

According to reports, the people of Deuli village under Begunia police limits had detained a youth on Thursday afternoon while he was purchasing a large quantity of flattened rice (chuda), biscuits and other dry food items from a shop near the village. The villagers had seen the youth moving suspiciously along the village and its nearby areas for the last 15 days. Since he spoke the dialect of western Odisha, they suspected him to be a member of a Maoist organisation and informed the Begunia police.

On being informed, SP (Khurda) Dipti Ranjay Ray and SDPO Jugal Kishore Das arrived at Begunia police station in the evening and recorded the statement of the youth.

The SP later informed the media that the youth has been identified as Suresh (20) of Potangi village in Nuapada district.

Later, a team of the Special Operation Group (SOG) arrived at the police station in the night and interrogated the youth.

On the basis of his statement, the district police and a special SOG team launched a joint operation in the Gojamundia hill forest at around 3 am and seized some cooking items. However, no other Maoist articles and weapons were found during the search operation.

Meanwhile, IG, Central Range, Soumendra Priyadarshi arrived at the Begunia police station on Friday.

Talking to mediapersons, he said the search operation is still continuing in the hill forest and the details of the operation would be known only after the security personnel return to the base camp.