BENGALURU: Contrary to reports in a section of the media, top Maoist leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao (74) alias Ganapathi, is not surrendering, according to the central committee of the banned extremist Left wing outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoist). Strongly reacting to media reports on Ganapathi’s surrender, the outfit issued a press release on Thursday, stating that he is their senior leader and will never surrender to the police.
The release said that the CPI (Maoist) blames the Central and Chhattisgarh governments for planting stories in the media against the top Naxal leadership to defame the movement. Ganapathi had voluntarily retired as general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) in November 2018 due to health issues, it added. TNIE spoke to Sundarraj P, Inspector General of Police, Bastar range, Chhattisgarh. He said that it would make no difference to the security forces if Ganapathi did not surrender. “The Naxal movement in the country is on the decline.
There has been no cadre recruitment in the last one decade. Geographically, the Maoists have lost large stretches of areas, which they had claimed as liberated. The government has accelerated development in Naxal-affected areas in every field -- from education and health to infrastructure and employment. Barring some pockets, Naxals are losing control because they don’t have people’s support,” said the Bastar IGP.
According to the Chhattisgarh police, Ganapathi, along with some senior Maoist leaders, takes shelter in “security vacuum” areas or interstate borders -- from the forested areas of Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada districts in Abhujmarh to pockets between Malkangiri in Odisha and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, or between Andhra Pradesh and Odisha border areas.
The top Maoist leadership in Karnataka has also not come forward to accept the State surrender and rehabilitation policy for Naxalites after 2017, said placed sources. “They are wary of the long jail term after the surrender of their three cadres – Kanyakumari alias Suvarna, her husband Shivu alias Gnanadeva, and another Naxal associate Chenamma in June 2017 in Chikkamagaluru. Kanyakumari was arrested over multiple criminal cases -- of illegal possession of arms, dacoity, murder, attempt to murder in Karnataka and Kerala -- which are pending against her and was placed in judicial custody. She has a small child and has to travel frequently between the two states for her trial in those cases,” said an official source. She continues to be in judicial custody while Shivu and Chenamma were let off.
One Maoist killed in Kothagudem forest area
Khammam: A member of the ‘action team’ of the banned CPI (Maoist) party was gunned down in an exchange of fire with the police in Devallagudem and Dubbagudem forest areas in Gundala mandal of
Bhadradri Kothagudem district in the wee hours of Thursday.