HYDERABAD: /VIJAYAWADA/VISAKHAPATNAM: Uncertainty hangs over the fate of CPI (Maoist) central committee member Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna following Monday’s encounter on the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB). Rights activist Varavara Rao and Ramakrishna’s wife Sirisha on Thursday demanded that if he was in police custody, he should immediately be produced in court.
However, the police denied taking the Maoist leader into custody. Visakhapatnam (rural) superintendent of police Rahul Dev Sharma termed the allegation tactics of Maoist sympathisers to know the whereabouts of Ramakrishna and clarified that no Maoist leader was detained. State police chief N Sambasiva Rao too claimed the Telangana Democratic Front (TDF) leaders had been levelling this kind of allegations for decades.
“We are ready to provide medical assistance to the injured Maoists. We are also ready to produce them in court, if they surrender either through the media or their frontal organisations. But, combing operations will not stop since several Maoists have escaped,” DGP of Andhra Pradesh N sambasiva Rao said. Nonetheless, with Varavara Rao and Sirisha casting doubts on the official version, speculation is rife that Ramakrishna might have been detained.
Fuelling the rumours are reports that the police had gone after the Maoists based on inputs that the top leader was there in the AOB region. The death of Munna, RK’s son, is also being cited to substantiate the argument that he was on the spot at the time of the encounter.
Sources told Express that if Ramakrishna had escaped, he might have reached his next destination as per the Maoists’ modus operandi. “Ramakrishna may not have made contact at the next place. Hence, the speculation,” they said.
On the warning letter allegedly released by the CPI (Maoist) party, the State police chief explained, “Targeting a government, an individual or a family is not correct. The state police are very consistent unlike Naxalites. We are not against any individual Maoist leader or groups.” As a precautionary measure, security has been beefed up for politicians. So far, 16 of the 30 slain Maoists have been identified. Nine bodies were handedover to the families . If the other families do not come forward by Friday, the police plan to conduct the last rites themselves.