Rayagada: Loka Shakti Abhiyan president and environmental activist Prafulla Samantara, who mysteriously went missing after allegedly being picked up by four unidentified men from a hotel in Odisha’s Rayagada around 3.30 pm on Tuesday, was traced to his home in Berhampur later in the evening.
According to sources, Samantara checked into the hotel at 6.30 am after arriving from Bhubaneswar and was scheduled to attend a press meeting around 4 pm at another hospitality facility. The winner of Goldman Environmental Prize-2017 had travelled to Rayagada to meet people arrested for opposing bauxite mining at Sijimali and Kuturumali hills under Kashipur block. He also had plans to meet tribals from the Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti (NSS), which is spearheading anti-mining activities at Niyamgiri hill in Kalyansinghpur and Muniguda blocks.
Samantara had reportedly asked some local workers of the Congress party to give him a lift on their motorcycle to the conference site. When the party workers reached the hotel again, he was not there. His two mobile phones was later found ‘switched off’.
Narendra Mohanty, state coordinator of Campaign Against Fabricated Cases (CAFC), told TOI that Samantara was forcibly taken by a police team from the hotel and was kept in a security camp at JK Pur, about 10 km from Rayagada. “With growing pressure, Samantara was sent home with a police escort. All this was done at the behest of the state government to suppress the anti-mining movement of the tribals in Rayagada,” he added.
SP (Rayagada) Vivekananda Sharma told the media that they have not received any complaint about his disappearance, but the allegation will be looked into.
Meanwhile, CPI(ML) Liberation District Secretary Tripathi Gamang has condemned the alleged abduction of Samantara by plainclothes police. He has also demanded an immediate high-level investigation into the matter.
Samantara has also sent a complaint to the inspector-in-charge of Rayagada police station through the Rayagada SP via speed post and requested the officer to treat it as an FIR. “Yesterday’s incident was a clear case of state terrorism. The government is working to protect the interests of the corporate. There has been a breach of my liberty and I had faced mental and physical torture. I need justice,” he said at a press conference in Berhampur.
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