Suspected woman Maoist arrested in Delhi

A 36-year-old suspected woman Maoist, wanted by the Chhattisgarh police, was on Tuesday arrested from a south Delhi locality where she was allegedly hiding, police sources said.

Soni Sori, a primary school teacher and an aunt of Lingaram Kodopi who was recently arrested for allegedly acting as a conduit between Maoists and Essar, was apprehended from Katwaria Sarai by a team of the Delhi police.

"We raided the premises on a tip-off provided by the Chhattisgarh police and arrested Sori," a senior police official said.

Sori hails from the Naxal-affected Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.

Five cases were registered against Sori in Chhattisgarh and she has been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code.

She was produced before a duty magistrate who sent her to judicial custody for a day.

The Chhattisgarh police had on Monday raided the house of rights activist Kavita Srivastava in Jaipur to apprehend Sori but could find her there, sources said.

In July last year, the Chhattisgarh police had issued warrants against Sori, her husband and Kodopi for an attack on Congress worker Avdesh Gautam and his son.

Sori had earlier contested the police version of Kodopi's arrest, claiming that he was picked up by plainclothes policemen in a white Bolero car from his grandfather's house in Palnar village and not while carrying money for Maoists.