HYDERABAD: Top CPI (Maoist) leader Sanjoy Deepak Rao and his wife Muruvupalli Raji were apprehended in a joint operation by the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh police on Friday. Sanjoy was a CPI Maoist Central Committee Member and was wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and by the police in Maharashtra and several southern states. He was arrested by the Telangana police while he was taking shelter at a film editor’s residence in Kukatpally of Hyderabad. Telangana DGP Anjani Kumar said that the police made the arrest on a tip-off by the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB).
His wife Raji, a Maoist district committee member of the Western Ghats special zone, was arrested by Sri Sathya Sai district police in Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana DGP said, “Sanjoy is a native of Thane, Maharashtra and did his electrical engineering from NIIT in Jammu and Kashmir. His father was also a Communist Trade Union leader and he eventually got attracted to left-wing ideology.”
Anjani Kumar said that leaders like Sanjoy were at the helm of policy-making. They always scripted strategies to take the party forward. Sanjoy’s arrest will now put a check on the Maoist movement, he said.
The DGP said that Sanjoy was found to be involved in the separatist movement in Kashmir too. “After he returned from J&K, he worked with CPI ML CRC (Marxist-Leninist) (Central Reorganisation Committee) and CPI-ML Rawoof Group. He was in charge of Maharashtra CPI-ML Naxalbari Group in 1999. He was later transferred to Raidurgam, Anantapur in 2002 and Kolar Mines in Karnataka in 2005 for leading the Maoist movement.
He worked for the merger of CPI-ML Naxalbari in the CPI (Maoist). He was then taken into the Central Committee. Since then he has been attending several meetings and also played a role in disbanding the South West Regional Bureau (SWRB) and the emergence of the Southern Regional Bureau (SRB) with Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala.
The DGP said several operations were put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic and later in 2021, he was elected as Secretary of the Western Ghats special zonal committee. He passed through Hyderabad while on his way to Maad in Chhattisgarh, he took shelter at the residence of his college friend, Prof Ranjith Shankarat from Mahendra Tech University, at Malaysian Township in Kukatpally and with film editor Ajith Kumar.
He was in possession of a revolver with six live rounds, a laptop, and Rs 47,500 cash when the police arrested him. He will be taken into police custody for four to five days and will be thoroughly investigated pertaining to his operation and activities in Telangana.
Meanwhile, reports said that he was the most wanted person in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Maharashtra government announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh for any information leading to his arrest. He regularly went to Maad to take part in Maoist activities and used to meet leaders including Basavaraj and Ganapati. His contacts and acquaintances in the city will be identified and questioned. His wife Raji, who has several aliases, is a native of Sunnamvaripalli village in Tanakallu mandal of the district. She is a resident of Ayyappa Nagar in Bengaluru.
Raji joined the RYF party in 1999 after being attracted to the ideology of Maoist leader SA Ravoof of Kutagulla village of Kadiri mandal in Sri Satya Sai district. Since then, she has been active in Maoist activities and has grown into a leader and a key member of the party. She married Sanjay Deepak Rao in 2007.
“Raji was carrying out Maoist activities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,’’ the SP said. She is the chief architect of many operations conducted by the Maoist party, particularly in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.