Berhampur, Feb. 21: A joint operation of district police, the SOG and the CRPF succeeded in capturing an associate of Odisha Maobadi Party (OMP) leader Sabyasachi Panda from Pandalhol reserve forest at Saroda last night. The arrested person was identified as Damba Mallick alias Raju, 42.

The operation achieved its second success in a row having destroyed a Maoist camp of the OMP in the Merikote Reserve Forest in Badagada and arresting two rebels on February 15. Panda, however, fled.

“Sabyasachi’s group is now scattered and they have been on the run since the operation on February 15,” said district superintendent of police Asish Singh.

The police have recovered arms and ammunition, including three Insas rifles, two .303 rifles, ammunition, detonators, bayonet, kit bag, acid bottle, printer ink bottles, polythene sheets, medicines mostly supplied by the state government and wearing apparels from Mallick, he said.

Mallick, who belongs to Krupagadi village in the Badagada police station area in Ganjam, joined the OMP six months ago. Earlier, the police had arrested Bhupati Mahanta, 22, alias Papu alias Gobinda of Tangarapada village and Govinda Maharana, 24, of Tambahara village both in the Harichandrapur police station jurisdiction in Keonjhar.

“According to information, there are now eight members, including Sabyasachi, in the OMP. The eight-member group included four women. They are Susanti, Anita, Nikita and one 45-year-old woman called Nani. Nani’s husband Sandip Pradhan recently surrendered before the police in Keonjhar and Nani, too, wants to do the same,” Singh said.

Naresh Sharma, commandant of the CRPF 127 battalion, said the distance between two places where exchange of fire took place at a gap of four days is 20 to 25 kilometres. “We are continuing the operation,” he said.