Odisha

Bhawanipatna, Mar 8 (PTI) Three persons have been arrested for allegedly providing logistics to the Maoists in Odisha's Kalahandi district, police said on Tuesday.

Acting on inputs, police intercepted the three suspects, who were moving suspiciously on the outskirts of Lanjigarh.

Two new walkie-talkies sets were recovered from their possession. They had planned to deliver it to the Naxals of the Kalahandi-Kandhamal-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN) division.

Bhubaneswar, Feb 14 (PTI) A sexagenarian who allegedly married 14 women in seven states in a span of 48 years was arrested in Bhubaneswar on Monday, police said.

It is also alleged that the man who hails from a village under Patkura police station in Odisha's Kendrapara district took money from these women before fleeing.

The arrested man, however, denied the charges.

Bhubaneswar, Feb 12 (PTI) The State Election Commssion, Odisha Saturday issued a new circular for the coming panchayat election prohibiting the presence of outsiders and political leaders in the poll-bound areas after campaigning.

All outsiders will have to leave the poll-bound areas by February 14 evening when campaigning for the first phase of election on February 16 ends, State Election Commissioner A P Padhi.

He spoke after holding a review meeting on rural and urban polls in the virtual mode with district collectors.

Kendrapara, Jan 29 (PTI) A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in Odisha's Kendrapara district, police said on Saturday.

The concrete life-size statue at the government-run Pakhyota Upper Primary School was found uprooted from the pedestal, they said.

The school is closed at present due to the pandemic.

Jajpur, Jan 29 (PTI) A newborn girl was allegedly sold by her parents for Rs 12,000 in Odisha's Jajpur district, officials said on Saturday.

The girl was born to a couple of Sanaraipara in Dharmasala police station area on Thursday, they said.

As the couple has three daughters, they allegedly sold their newborn for Rs 12,000 to a childless couple of Mahakalapada in Kendrapara district soon after the baby was born at the community health centre, officials said.

Even the health centre was not aware of the alleged sale, they said.

Rourkela, Jan 12 (PTI) In what seemed like a Bollywood conman movie replay, the Odisha Police on Wednesday arrested a man for allegedly impersonating as a police officer and duping a woman inspector in Sundargarh district of Rs 4.5 lakh.

Chittaranjan Tarai introduced himself to the woman as Deepak Panda, claiming to have been posted as a sub-inspector at the Baisinga police station in Mayurbhanj district, an official said.

Baripada (Odisha), Jan 12 (PTI) A court in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday sentenced a man to 10 years imprisonment for raping a minor girl five years ago.

POCSO judge Sumita Jena also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict, 26-year-old Kalicharan Marandi.

On March 4, 2017, when the seven-year-old girl was going to a field in Tiring block, he lured her to a secluded spot and raped her.

The court also directed the state Legal Service Authority to pay Rs 3 lakh to the girl as compensation.

Kendrapara (Odisha), Jan 7 (PTI) A rare albino salt-water crocodile has been recently sighted at Odisha's Bhitarkanika National Park, a forest officer said on Friday.

Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Divisional Forest Officer J D Pati said that the albino crocodile was sighted in the hatchery and rearing complex of crocodiles at Dangmal in the national park.

Malkangiri (Odisha), Dec 31 (PTI) Security forces uncovered an arms dump of the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit along the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border on Friday, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, Odisha Police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel launched an intensive combing operation in Swabhiman Anchal in Jodambo police station area.

Balasore (Odisha), Dec 22 (PTI) India Wednesday successfully conducted the maiden flight test of the indigenously-developed, surface-to-surface missile Pralay' off the Odisha coast, the DRDO said.

The solid-fuel, battlefield missile developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation is based on Prithvi Defence Vehicle from the Indian ballistic missile programme.

The missile, launched from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island around 10.30 AM, met all the mission objectives, the DRDO said in a statement.