Bhuvaneshwar : Maoists on Thursday released Odisha legislator Jhina Hikaka in the state’s Koraput district after holding him captive for more than a month.

Reporters and photographers surrounded a relieved and healthy looking Hikaka as he came with a group of villagers to a mango garden at Balipeta, over 500 km from here, at about 10.30 am.

Emotions ran high when the 37-year-old Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator, wearing a green kurta, hugged his wife Kaushalya and seconds after both broke down in tears.

“We’re glad that he is safe and unharmed,” party colleague Baijayant Panda told reporters.

The leftwing extremists, who kidnapped Hikaka from Laxmipur in Koraput on March 24, had on Wednesday announced that a ‘praja’, people’s, court decided to release him after he apologised to the rebels and the local villagers.

A Maoist leader calling herself ‘Aruna’, in an audio message aired by a local television channel here, had said the decision to release him was taken after he promised to resign from the assembly and the primary membership of the ruling BJD.

Last Updated 25 Apr 12 at 22:15

Abducted MLA Jhina Hikaka to be released at 10 am Thursday

Bhuvaneswar : Maoists who have held Odisha legislator Jhina Hikaka hostage for over a month will release him on Thursday, a lawyer who fights cases for the rebels said on Wednesday.

Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, based in Koraput district, told a TV channel that the rebels will set Hikaka free by 10 a.m. Thursday.

The rebels will hand him over to Patnaik and Kaushalya, the wife of the abducted Biju Janata Dal legislator, in Narayanpatna area of the district, the lawyer said quoting a Maoist leader.

However, there is still no official confirmation of the development. No audio tape has been released by the rebels.

The left-wing extremists, who kidnapped 37-year-old Hikaka from Laxmipur in Koraput March 24, had announced they will hold a ‘people’s court’ on Wednesday where his fate would be decided.