**Malkangiri/Bhubaneswar:** As threatened earlier, the desperate left wing extremists reportedly abducted five Panchayat Poll officials from remote Chitrakonda block of this Maoist-infested southern Odisha district here on Friday.
As per reports, the ultras kidnapped the five officials from separate Gram Panchayats (GPs).
The officials were in their offices waiting to receive nomination papers of candidates on the third day of the ongoing nomination-filing process.
The five abducted poll officials have been identified as Lingaraj Majhi, Kaminikanta Singh, Praveen Soren, Purusottam Behera and Hrushikesh Naik.
The red rebels have also kidnapped Jodamba village head Laxman Sisa’s son, Manoranjan Sisa.
Notably, the Maoists, on the eve of the filing of nomination process, have warned the tribals of the district to abstain from the grassroots-level polls or face dire consequences after being tried at the ‘Praja Court’ (kangaroo court).
The threat has been issued through posters, earlier spotted in Kudumulugumma area in the district here, by the Malkangiri District Divisional Committee of the outlawed ultras.
Abducted polling official Kaminikanta Singh’s wife appealed the Maoists on the day to release them as they have been to there on government duty. They have no fault.
Odisha Home Secretary Asit Tripathy informed, “Five officials had been to the cut-off area to supervise Panchayat poll-related work and to collect nomination papers. They are Kaminikanta Singh (JE), Purusottam Behera (PEO), Lingaraj Majhi (PEO), Praveen Soreng (PEO) and some Naik (PEO). They all had been to Panasput Panchayat on January 11. Task was to collect nomination papers of 5 Panchayats’ Sarpanch post nomination papers. They were to return on January 18. They will definitely return on 18. They had given their okay report yesterday (Thursday) at 5.30 pm. As per the information given by Malkangiri SP to Collector, ‘there is a rumour in the area that they may have been kidnapped’. But, this is not all confirmed. DG has been asked to confirm. I talked to the Collector. He was on leave. He is returning. Let’s hope for the best that the poll officials’ okay report reaches this evening. At the worst case, situation to be taken stock of.”
Odisha DGP K.B. Singh informed media, “Five polling officers and one ex-Sarpanch are untraced. We are unable to establish communication with them. I’m not sure whether they are kidnapped or what is their status. We’ve sent our men there to get information.”
On being queried if the Maoists have made any demand after such an abduction, the DGP replied, “Nothing. No demand, no claim nothing. It is in the cut-off area there. The officials had gone to collect nomination papers and are untraced.”