Police commissioner BK Sharma at the SCB Medical College and Hospital and (below) the two detained persons at the hospital. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Jan. 9: The detention of two suspected Maoists from Bengal who had come to Sriram Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College and Hospital for treatment on Saturday has raised many questions regarding their presence in the city.

“Three others, who had accompanied the two suspected Maoists to the hospital, have also been detained by the city police and are being interrogated,” said police commissioner B.K. Sharma after visiting the hospital today.

“The antecedents of the two persons are being verified with the assistance of Jhargram police. We have certain information about the two and we are verifying them,” the commissioner said.

The commissionerate police had detained the Deven Marandi (22) and Manik Soren (21) after the two had come to the hospital for treatment. They have sustained multiple injuries on their bodies. The police and the doctors suspected that the injuries had been caused by some kind of explosion. Their wounds are reportedly three-days-old.

The commissioner said that it appeared that the two sustained injuries while ‘mishandling’ an improvised device which could well be a landmine.

Jhargram area in West Midnapore district is an area badly hit by Maoist problems. The district its borders with Mayurbhanj in Orissa and Chhotanagpur in Jharkhand.

“The Jhargram police have informed us about the involvement of the duo in some other case also. We are carrying out our investigation and additional director general (law and order) of West Bengal Police has been contacted over the developments,” Sharma added.

Earlier, a team of West Bengal police led by inspector-in-charge of Gopiballabhpur police station, Ranjit Ghose, arrived in the city to interact with the police here. The team also went to the ENT department of the S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital where the two suspected militants had been lodged. There is heavy police deployment in the hospital.

The police inspector from Bengal, however, said: “Its too early for us to say that the two are Maoists.”

But he admitted that there was a blast in Jhargram recently and said that they are verifying all aspects. “We have come here for an inquiry which is in the preliminary stage. We have spoken to the doctors and officials of Orissa police and it is too early to say whether they are Maoists or have some kind of links with the rebels,” Ghose said.

“There was a blast in Jhargram recently and we are verifying all aspects in connection with this. Further investigation into the case is on,” he added. It may be recalled here that Maoist leader Anna Reddy was also nabbed from a private hospital in Bhubaneswar in 2007.

“It is difficult to throw a security blanket all over the city. Moreover, only through better cooperation with the people, we will be able to handle the threat. In this case, the doctors and attendants had suspected the activities of the two and had alerted us,” the city police commissioner said while seeking the cooperation of public in such matters.