Jadala Nagaraj still alive?

Hyderabad: Is Jadala Nagaraj, a former PWG Naxalite-turned police informant, still alive? He is said to have recently surfaced on a few occasions at different places in the state, renewing fears that he may attack his rivals at will, once again.

He was reportedly spotted at a hotel in Secunderabad very recently. Earlier, he was said to be seen travelling along with five others in a Tata Sumo in Madanapalli in Chittoor district in February.

Hailing from Nalgonda district in South Telangana, where the revolutionary movement had thrived since the late 80s, he served in the PWG movement for some time, before he was won over by the police in April 1998.

Police got him infiltrated into the Karimnagar unit of the PWG.

It is believed that he brought some Naxals under the police fold, and used them to eliminate Naxal cadres and leaders. He allegedly shot dead Malkapur Bhaskar, a member of the North Telengana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC), and returned to the police with a couple of weapons.

A week before the incident, another Naxalite, Somla Naik, a member of the Krishna Patti dalam, killed three of his colleagues and surrendered to the police with five weapons.

Nagraj was said to have taken it upon himself both suppression of the movement as well as elimination of its cadres and leaders.

He was reported as declaring repeatedly that he would finish off the left wing extremism in AP, using all means.

The police seem to have evolved an effective strategy to counter the Naxalites by covert operations; disillusioned Naxalites, who are vexed by the violent methods of the left wing extremism, are reportedly being co-opted to target top Naxal leaders.