Maoists area commander arrested in Rourkela

Rourkela, June 23 (ANI): A hardcore Maoist leader Kandru Lohar was arrested in Orissa's Rourkela District on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Rourkela Police in a joint exercises with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) arrested Kandru Lohar, the area commander of Digha, in the Rourkela district.

"After his arrest, we interrogated him about his involvement in various cases in Rourkela police district and according to his confession, we have detected that he has been involved in as many as twenty cases," said Himansu Lal, Rourkela SP.

"On March 8, Kandru and five others had barged into the girls' hostel of Erla Ashram School and terrorized the teachers, head master and students by opening blank fire, when they were not allowed to meet some girls," said Lal.

Lal further said: "We have recovered an automatic pistol, five rounds of live ammunition and some Maoist literature from him. He has around 19 cases in our area. And we are carrying on further investigations in this matter." he said

The Maoist literature, which was seized from him, suggested that he and other Maoists in the area were planning to attract more local people to join their fold by spreading such literature among them.

Kanduru, who is a native of Jharbeda under Bisra police station, was a close aid of slain Maoist area commander Md Muslim Kanduru. He had taken over as the area commander of the Digha area after the encounter of Muslim by police about a year ago. (ANI)