Bhubaneswar, Oct. 11: Orissa police are reported to have extracted “valuable” information about top rung Maoist leaders, including Dunna Keshav Rao alias Azad, from a Kandhamal resident who was arrested on Sunday for sheltering and running errands for rebels.

Gavaskar Nayak, 27, of Rutangia village within G. Udayagiri police station limits was picked up by the police following information about his closeness with Azad, who once headed the Vansdhara division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

“The information that we have managed to get from him is important. But it cannot be disclosed at this juncture,” said Kandhamal superintendent of police J.N. Pankaj.

Nayak, who had worked for sometime as the driver of a construction company, which has been awarded a major road construction contract in the state’s Maoist belt, was allegedly giving shelter to rebels and arranging doctors for their treatment.

Sources said Nayak had arranged for the treatment of Maoist leader Padma and Runita Badmajhi, the wife of Azad in Bhubaneswar. Azad surrendered before the police in Andhra Pradesh in May this year, a few days after escaping the police dragnet in Bhubaneswar.

Sources in the police said that following his arrest, Nayak had confessed to acting as a middleman and a courier supplying material to Maoists. They also seized some Maoist posters during the raid on his house. The SP, however, sought to make it clear that Nayak only helped Maoists but was not a part of their organisation.

Significantly, three days before the arrest of Nayak, police had rounded up two other persons from Daringbadi area of Kandhamal for trying to help Maoists in similar manners.

Sources said that Nirakant Pradhan and Varsu Mallick were taken into custody following allegations that they were supplying rice and other food materials to the rebels.