Top Maoist's wife meets Odisha DGP, fuels surrender speculation

Cuttack: Top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda’s wife today met Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra, sparking speculation over his possible surrender. As Panda’s key associates are being eliminated one after another, talks on Panda’s surrender gained momentum when his wife Subhashree Dash, alias Mili, met the DGP.[caption id=“attachment_707744” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Against the Naxals. AFP[/caption] After failing to meet Mishra at his camp office in Bhubaneswar last month, Mili was allowed to meet him at the police headquarters in Cuttack and the two had a one-to one discussion for over an hour, the police said. While Mili refused to divulge what transpired between them, the DGP parried all questions by the media and merely said Mili had come to meet him over pending police cases registered against her. Some cases were registered against Mili recently over her alleged involvement in supplying explosives to Maoists. However, speculation is rife here that Mili met the DGP to find a way out so that her husband could surrender with dignity. Panda is now left alone in jungles as most of his key associates were killed in police encounters or arrested. Sources said Panda’s life is in danger as he is surrounded by the police on one side while his one-time fellow Maoists from Andhra Pradesh are baying for his blood from the other side. Panda, who quit the CPI (Maoist) to form Odisha Maovadi Party in late 2011, is reported to have over 50 cases pending against him, including the attack on Nayagarh armoury and murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. Panda issued an audio tape from his hideout in the jungle, barely hours after his wife meeting the DGP. In the tape, he refused to surrender and blamed political parties for alleged atrocities on innocent tribals. PTI