Maoist Ganapathy encircled in C’garh?

New Delhi : Maoist chief commander Ganapathy has been encircled by security forces in jungles of south Chhattisgarh, according to reports here on Monday.

The 65-year-old Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathy, the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist), has over Rs 3 crore bounty on his head.

Ganapathy is reportedly cornered in the Ambhujmand jungles with all exit routes having been sealed off. Security forces acted on basis of intelligence reports that he went to the area to hold a meeting of Maoists in view of large-scale surrender of cadres in the recent months. In the last nine months, over 200 Naxals have surrendered in Chhattisgarh. Over a dozen joint teams of state police and CRPF are conducting combing operations in the area to flush out the Maoist top boss, reports added.

Born in Andhra Pradesh, Ganapathy was a teacher before he decided to take up the gun. Ganapathy and other top commanders keep moving around in deep jungles of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra, making it difficult to track them.

Apart from the Maoist chief, about a dozen Politburo and central committee members of the outfit have been eluding the police for long.