PLGA strength down to 66 from 400: Telangana DGP
HYDERABAD: As many as 20 CPI (Maoist) underground cadres, including People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Battalion commander Badse Sukka alias Deva and Telangana state committee member Kankanala Raji Reddy alias Venkatesh, surrendered before the Telangana police on Saturday, handing over 48 firearms.
Director General of Police B Shivadhar Reddy told reporters that the strength of the PLGA had come down from over 400 cadres to 66. With the surrender of Kankanala Raji Reddy, the Telangana state committee of the Maoist party was left with only one member, he said.
The DGP said the surrendered cadres had also handed over what he described as PLGA arms dumps, including weapons linked to Madavi Hiduma and Badse Sukka. The surrendered cadres handed over two LMGs, one US-made Colt rifle, one Israel-made Tavor rifle, eight AK-47s, 10 INSAS rifles, eight SLRs, four BGLs, 11 single-shot weapons, two grenades and one air gun. They also surrendered 2,206 rounds of ammunition, including 19 helicopter-fired rounds. The DGP said such a quantity of ammunition being handed over during a surrender was uncommon in recent years.
He appealed to the remaining PLGA members to join the mainstream, referring to the surrender of their battalion commander.
The DGP said Badse Sukka was a senior tribal leader in CPI (Maoist) and had joined the CPI (ML) People’s War Group in 2003. A contemporary of Madavi Hiduma, he later took charge as PLGA commander after Hiduma moved out of the battalion in November 2023. Sukka was involved in military training, procurement of explosives and manufacture of firearms and IEDs.
The DGP stated that Sukka had been associated with several ambushes, including the Jheram Ghati attack, in which Congress leader Mahendra Karma and others were killed. He added that in 2024, Maoist formations shifted to the Karreguttalu Hills following police pressure in south Bastar, with Sukka handling security and logistics in the area.
The police said Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and the NIA had announced a combined reward of `75 lakh on Sukka. The total reward announced on all the surrendered cadres was `1.81 crore, which would be paid under the Union and state governments’ relief and rehabilitation policy. An interim relief of `25,000 each was handed over to all the 20 cadres on Saturday.