WARANGAL: In a major blow to the Maoist movement in the State, CPI (Maoist) central committee member Patel Sudhakar Reddy and State committee member Venkataiah were killed in an encounter with police at Lavvala jungles in Warangal district this morning.
Sudhakar Reddy, who carried a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head, was wanted in several cases, including the attempted assassination of former chief ministers N Chandrababu Naidu in 2003 and N Janardhan Reddy in 2007 and the assassination of former home minister A Madhava Reddy in 2000.
Sudhakar Reddy was also allegedly involved in the murder of senior IPS officers KS Vyas and Umesh Chandra and last year’s Balimela attack in which 36 Greyhounds personnel died when the Maoists sank a boat on the APOrissa border.
As soon as news of the death of the two Maoists broke, civil rights groups cried foul alleging that Sudhakar Reddy was arrested near Nasik before the recent elections and killed in cold blood this morning.
Revolutionary Poets’ Association (Virasam) leader Varavara Rao demanded that murder cases be registered against policemen responsible for the killing of the two leaders. The Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) approached the high court which directed the authorities to conduct post-mortem again at the MGM Hospital here on Monday and videograph the entire session even though post-mortem was conducted on the two bodies at Eturunagaram Government Hospital this afternoon.
According to District Superintendent of Police VC Sajjanar, a police team, combing the jungles, ran into a group of about 25 Maoists at Durgam Gutta in Lavvala forest area this morning. They warned the Naxalites to drop their weapons and surrender but the latter opened fire forcing the cops to retaliate.
After the encounter, which lasted for half-an-hour, the police found the bodies of the two Maoist leaders. A few more Maoists are believed to have been wounded in the gunbattle. An AK 47 rifle, a 9 mm pistol and an 8 mm rifle and three kit bags containing Rs 20,000 were recovered from the scene of action.
Sajjanar said the police had received information that the Maoists crossed the Godavari river, which had dried up, from Orissa and Chhattisgarh about 10 days ago.
‘‘They came to Warangal district to talk to contractors who had hired coolies for picking beedi leaves. They were also planning some major action in the district,’’ the SP said. He also said Sudhakar Reddy was involved in 30 murders and was responsible for blowing up two police stations.
A shrewd strategist in planning attacks, Reddy belonged to Kurti Ravula Cheruvu in Maldakal mandal of Mahaboobnagar district.
He went underground while studying law at the Osmania University. In 1986, he became the commander of a squad in Eturunagaram. Later, he worked in Gadchiroli area in Maharashtra. He acted as incharge of arms dumps in Karnataka and was arrested in 1992. He came out on bail in 1996. In 1998, he became the secretary of CPI (Maoist) Nalgonda district unit. Very few details are available about Venkataiah except that he belonged to Cheryal in Warangal district and worked as commander of Giraipalli squad in 1998 before shifting base to the Nallamala forest area.