Sabyasachi Panda being produced in Berhampur court on Monday. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, July 28: Even as Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda was sent to judicial custody today following the end of his 10-day remand by police and preparations began for his transfer to Nayagarh, he submitted a five-page petition to the Berhampur sub-divisional judicial magistrate expressing fear that the police might kill him during the transfer.

Sabyasachi is to be produced before the Nayagarh sub-divisional judicial magistrate for interrogation by the police. Nayagarh sub-divisional judicial magistrate had prayed to his Berhampur counterpart to allow Sabyasachi’s transfer.

Nayagarh police would escort Sabyasachi.

Sabyasachi in his petition argued that the police might kill him during his transfer to Nayagarh. He said the police must make declaration about his safe transfer to Nayagarh through an affidavit. Or else, he said, he might be interrogated by the police through videoconferencing in Berhampur jail.

Sabyasachi read out the petition in 20 minutes.

He further said the police had not included some of his articles in the seizure list when he was arrested in Berhampur. These include his spectacles, a pair of shirts and trousers. The police were interrogating him in Berhampur from 8am to 12 midnight, as the court had not specified any time limit for interrogation, Sabyasachi said.

However, the Berhampur sub-divisional judicial magistrate ruled that there was no need for the police to file an affidavit for transferring Sabyasachi from Berhampur to Nayagarh.

In another development, the state crime branch has already been granted remand of the rebel leader by Nayagarh court. He will be interrogated in connection with a number of cases of violence, including the murder of VHP leader Laxmananand Saraswati.