Malkangiri: A tribal panchayat samiti member in this district sustained critical injuries after being severely beaten up by Maoists in the wee hours of Friday.
A group of armed Maoists stormed into Nilapari village under Chitrakonda police limits and thrashed Mahadeb Sisa (35) after dragging him out of his house, a police officer said.
The ultras dumped Mahadev on the outskirts of the village after inflicting grievous injuries upon him and disappeared into the nearby forest, the police said, adding Sisa was lying on the road in an unconscious state for a long time.
According to Mahadev’s wife Bhanumati, at least five armed ultras forcibly took her husband to a road at about 1 am and started beating him up mercilessly.
“They didn’t say a word as to why they were doing this to my husband. The miscreants abandoned him after he became unconscious,” she said.
On the other hand, Mahadev’s elder brother Sahadev and nephew Sadhuram Muduli alleged though they went to a nearby Border Security Force camp seeking the help of jawans, it didn’t yield any result.
Moreover, the BSF officials held them up for three hours, the duo alleged, adding, by the time they returned to the village the Maoists had left the scene leaving Mahadev in a critical condition.
The villagers took Mahadev to the district headquarters hospital. A hand-written note was found from the spot which claimed that Mahadev was targeted as he was working as a ‘police informer’. Seven other ‘informers’ of the area are in their target, the note said.
Chitrakonda MLA Dambaru Sisa, Malkangiri MLA Manas Madkami, Congress leader Ramesh Patnaik and many others came to the hospital to see Mahadev.
Later, the samiti member was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack as his condition worsened, it was learnt.
The incident came close on the heels of the killing of two tribals after they were abducted and taken hostage by the Maoists from Kudumuluguma area in the district over the last four days.
Meanwhile, MLA Sisa suspected whether the Maoists were really involved in these cases as the incidents occurred just after the announcement of panchayat election dates. PNN