Seventeen others were arrested for opposing the land acquisition process.
Official sources said police swung into action when Basudev Behera of the Noliasahi area in the Kujang police station area protested the district administration's move to demolish his betel vine and prevented officials from doing so.
Behera, a prominent leader of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the CPI-backed body spearheading the agitation against the South Korean steel major, was taken to Kujang police station as he refused to accept a cheque for Rs 2,99,000 for his betel vine.
Police also arrested 17 others, 10 of them from Behera's family, for opposing land acquisition for the steel plant, rehabilitation and resettlement officer Surjit Das said.
Behera was served with a notice about a fortnight ago to vacate the government land on which he had grown a betel vine illegally, the official said, adding the people illegally encroaching on government land were being paid compensation for vacating
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