Top Maoist leader arrested in ASR district; 60 Maoists surrender

Paderu: In another success for the Andhra Pradesh police's anti-Maoist operations, the Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district police arrested Vanthala Ramakrishna alias Prabhakar alias Ashok alias Goddali Rayudu, the area committee secretary (ACS) of CPI (Maoist) Pedabayalu-Korukonda area.

The deputy inspector general of Visakhapatnam Range, S. Harikrishna, and ASR district police chief S. Sathish Kumar said the top Maoist leader Ramakrishna was arrested by the Pedabayalu police while he was proceeding from Kondrum village to Injari village under Pedabayalu mandal in ASR district.

The 35-year-old Maoist leader is a resident of Kondrum village. Motivated by CPI (Maoist) party leader Bhupathi (DCM-surrendered), Ramakrishna joined as a militia member for Kondrum village and since then he has worked as a Dalam member, party member, area committee member, and area committee secretary.

He moved with the Maoist party cadres in Malkangiri and Koraput districts of Odisha, East Godavari, and ASR districts which lie in the Andhra Odisha Special Zonal Committee area (AOBSZC). He recruited many militia members and conducted meetings in the name of "Praja Courts." He terrorised the local people by killing innocent tribal people by branding them as police informers.

He conducted unlawful meetings and threatened the tribal people against the government's developmental programmes such as roads, cell towers, government installations and a few others, the police said.

So far, he is involved in 124 cases in Odisha and East Godavari, and ASR districts. The government had announced a cash reward of Rs. 5 lakhs against him earlier.

The police seized Rs. 39 lakh cash, a landmine of about 5 kg in a steel carriage, five detonators in a polythene cover, an electrical wire, and a 9 mm pistol from Ramakrishna.

Meanwhile, those who worked under his supervision, 33 party members and 27 militia members, including eight women, surrendered before the police. Those who surrendered belonged to the interior and Maoist-affected tribal villages of Kondrum, Thagupadu, Jumadam, Nanubari, and Jadiguda. Afraid of and threatened by the Maoist party, they joined the party and worked as party members and militia members.

Some of them laid ambush and triggered landmines by targeting police parties that were on combing operations. They set fires to road-laying machinery and cell towers and killed innocent tribal people in Praja courts.