Cheeramma, who exposed Naxalites in Karnataka, dies at 100
BENGALURU: Cheeramma, the woman who exposed the existence of Naxalites in Karnataka, is no more. Hundred-year-old Cheeramma breathed her last on Monday morning in Koppa taluk of Chikkamagaluru district. The villagers who mourned her death recollected the day when an accidental bullet injury to her leg exposed the Naxal training activities in Karnataka.
On November 6, 2002, when Cheeramma went into the woods to get logs, she injured her leg. Not knowing what had caused the injury, she went to the doctor only to find that a bullet was stuck in her leg.
“Later investigations found that there was a Naxal training camp set up at Menasinahadya in Koppa and this proved their existence in the dense forest of Western Ghats,” remembered a senior officer who has worked on Naxal combing operations.