Top Maoist leader, wife surrender

Hyderabad: Top Maoist leader and in-charge of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) communication wing, Chambala Ravinder alias Kukkala Ravinder alias Arjun, 44, and wife Vetti Adimi alias Devi alias Ranitha,40, in-charge of the National Park Area Committee, surrendered before the Telangana Police on Friday.

Ravinder and Adimi were wanted by the police and were carrying a bounty of Rs 20 Lakh and Rs 5 Lakh respectively Addressing media persons on Friday, TS DGP Anurag Sharma said Ravinder hailed from Thammadapally village in Warangal district and was assigned additional responsibilities as in-charge of 2nd Battalion, in-charge of DandaKaranya communication wing. Dandakaranya is a forest region that runs through the states of Chattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Ravinder is in the Maoist movement for the last 25 years. Sources said that both were involved in many Naxal related incidents in Chhattisgarh. Ravinder is the second big leader of CPI (Maoist) to surrender after the dreaded Gudsa Usendi in recent times. He joined the People’s War Group (PWG) in 1990 as a dalam member and rose to the position of State committee member and in-charge of the Mobile Military School (MoMIS) which imparts military training to its cadres. Ravinder got married in 1996 to Vetti Adimi of Chattisgarh. She joined the party in 1993 at the age of 20. Speaking to media, Ravinder said that the CPI (Maoist) party had become anti- people and they were opposing the basic development of poor people. He said when he differed with them he was demoted and transferred. This had hurt him and as he was facing health problems he decided to surrender.

Last year, at least 17 people, including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma, were killed and former union minister VC Shukla and 19 others injured when heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of party leaders inside a dense forest in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district. As per reports, there are 166 underground cadres still active with CPI (Maoists) working in different positions in different places.