india

Updated: Nov 19, 2019 01:40 IST

Earlier this month, manager of a stone crusher unit in Maoist-affected Koraput district thought he had enough of paying up to a group of people, who identified themselves as Maoists and threatened him often to extort lakhs of rupees from him.

For last 4 years, V Prasad Rao who ran a stone crusher unit at Silipondi village in Lamtaput block of Koraput preferred paying to the locals, who posed as Maoists and extorted money from him threatening to blow up his unit if he reported the matter to the police.

On November 8, they demanded Rs 10 lakh from Rao and when he did not pay up, they arrived at his unit and started firing. Luckily, the police arrived and police arrested a tribal man following a gunfight.

“When we arrested a man called Laxman Sisa, we found that he was a fake Maoist who was extorting money from businessmen in the district while posing as a real Maoist,” said Koraput superintendent of police, Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo.

The incident is one of 40 such cases reported in the last three years in Koraput, involving 31 alleged fake Maoists. Koraput is a Maoist hotbed. In September this year, Koraput police had arrested three persons over extorting money from local sarpanches and contractors. Police seized a country made rifle, Maoist letter pads, Maoist uniform and a mobile phone from them, officials said.

A senior police officer familiar with the development said while violence by Maoists was on decline, the problems of fake Maoists was proving to be a challenge. Since 2016, Maoist activities have been going down in Odisha, particularly in Koraput and Malkangiri once considered as a bastion of the rebels.

From 68 incidents of Maoist violence reported in 2016, the numbers are down to 41 this year, according to Odisha police records. Similarly, the number of security forces killed in Maoist attacks in the first 10 months of 2019 was just one as compared to 8 in 2000.

“Unlike Maoist violence which leaves evidence, the victims of cases involving fake Maoists normally don’t report for months together fearing reprisal from the rebels. A phone call or a poster written in red is enough to scare anyone in the Maoist-affected areas. In places like Koraput and Malkangiri, a country-made weapon is easily available and can be used to strike fear,” said the police official in charge of anti-Maoist operations, who was not willing to be named.

In western Odisha district of Bargarh, a block development officer, a divisional forest officer and several contractors too paid up without thinking twice when the calls from alleged ‘Maoists’ came over their phone, police officers said.

A police officer said a group involving a deputy forest ranger and two brothers was involved in extorting money from locals since 2014 till their luck ran out in July this year.

“They used to ask the contractors and the officials to the forest. In the last 5 years they must have extorted about Rs 40 lakh. They used to make phone calls to contractors and officials identifying themselves as Maoists and demanded money from them, whenever local media reported about movement of rebels in Gandhamardan Hill Range and Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary,” said a police official in Bargarh district, who was not willing to be quoted.