VIJAYAWADA: Citing ideological disillusionment, lack of public support, and internal discontent, a Maoist couple has joined the mainstream. Jorige Nagaraju alias Kamalesh, State Zonal Committee Member, and incharge of East Bastar Divisional Committee, and his wife Medaka Jyoteeswari alias Aruna, Divisional Committee Member and incharge of Mobile Academic Political Organisation School, East Bastar, surrendered before Director General of Police Harish Kumar Gupta on Saturday. The couple handed over a cache of arms to police.
Speaking on the occasion, the DGP said the surrender of Maoist couple marks a major operational gain for security forces, who are combating Left Wing Extremism in the State.
Both Kamalesh and his wife Aruna hail from Krishna district, and served in the banned CPI (Maoist) for over 30 years. While Kamalesh held the posts of Special Zonal Committee Member in the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, and incharge of the East Bastar Divisional Committee, his wife Aruna, originally from Kappaladoddi village, had been active in the movement for three decades, and served as a Divisional Committee Member.
Police announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh on Kamalesh in Chhattisgarh, and Rs 20 lakh in Andhra Pradesh, while Aruna carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on her head.
ASR police unearth cache of weapons and ammo
“The couple cited ideological disillusionment, lack of public support, and internal discontent within the Maoist ranks as reasons for their decision to surrender. The Andhra Pradesh government is actively implementing Maoist surrender policy, and I urge others to join the mainstream,” said the DGP.
Harish Kumar Gupta said the surrender was part of a broader trend of Maoist cadres abandoning armed struggle in favour of reintegration. He emphasised the importance of such surrenders to weaken the outfit’s leadership structure.
“We have identified that around 20 active Maoists are residing in other States. The Andhra Pradesh Police Department is urging them to give up arms, and join the mainstream, failing which they will be neutralised,” the DGP warned.
The DGP explained that Kamalesh was attracted to extremist ideology, and became a member of Radical Students Union in 1991. In February 1993, he became a party member and worked as an assistant and courier to the late Akkiraju Haragopal, Central Committee Member and late Mastan Rao, Regional Committee Secretary.
After being elevated to Area Committee Member rank in 1998, he worked in Dachepalli and Bollapalli Dalams of Guntur Divisional Committee.
In 2002, he was elevated to Divisional Committee rank and made in-charge of Guthikonda Area Committee,
The DGP handed over Rs 20,000 each to the surrendered Maoists as immediate relief under the State’s rehabilitation policy.
In yet another parallel operation, Alluri Sitarama Raju district police unearthed three Maoist arms dumps in the forests on July 23 and 25.
Acting on specific intelligence, police teams recovered a cache of 18 weapons, including one AK-47, two BGLs, five SLRs, two INSAS rifles, and five .303 rifles. The haul included 606 live rounds, 16 BGL shells, 37 kg of Cardex wire, detonators, and other tactical equipment.