Khammam police on Monday arrested a woman suspected to be a Maoist operative believed to have been involved in the recent bloody ambush on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh that left 27 people dead.

The police believe three other persons travelling in the car along with the arrestee have fled. The police suspect the four were involved in the attack at Sukhma and were fleeing to safer hideouts outside Chhattisgarh in view of intensified combing in the state.

According to the police, the woman – the police are yet to reveal her identity –was caught after the car in which she was traveling overturned following a chase by the police near Palwancha in Khammam district.

Khammam police received information that a four-member team of the the banned extremist outfit was crossing into Andhra Pradesh from Chhattisgarh and were proceeding to an undisclosed location in the border district of Khammam. Proving their premonitions right, an Alto car gate-crashed the barricades put up at a makeshift checkpost near Palwancha, prompting the police to go after it.

As the police gave a chase, the car, travelling at a high speed, went out of control and overturned. The police apprehended a woman they claimed was in the car; other passengers of the vehicle appeared to have fled.

Khammam police are at present questioning the woman at the OSD’s office; details about her identity are expected to emerge by this evening.