KOZHIKODE: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Kerala police has arrested senior Maoist leader B G Krishnamurthy, who is the secretary of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee.
According to the sources in the police, Krishnamurthy, who is known as BGK among Maoist circles, was picked up from Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad on Tuesday evening. Savithri alias Rejitha, the commander of the Kabani dalam of the CPI (Maoist), was also arrested along with BGK.
The Maoist leader is "a big catch for the police" as he was elevated to the central committee of the party recently. BGK was elected the temporary secretary of the CPI (Maoist) after the killing of the Kuppu Devaraj in an encounter in Nilambur in Malappuram in November 2016. The zonal committee meeting in 2017 made him permanent in the post.
BGK hails from Sringeri in Karnataka and there are allegedly more than 50 cases against him in the state. He became the leader of the party in Karnataka after the killing of Saket Rajan in 2005 and the split in the movement in 2006.
Savithri was the wife of the Maoist leader Vikram Gowda, who is also in the Kabani dalam of the Maoists operating in the Wayanad-Kozhikode area. The party had allowed her to get a divorce from Vikram Dowda two years ago.
The arrest is the latest blow for the Maoists in South India, which is facing a serious crisis in the past few years. Lijesh alias Ramu, a member of the party, surrendered before the police two weeks ago in Wayanad, and Raghavendra, who has been working as a ‘courier’ for the party in the past seven years, was arrested in Kannur two days ago.