Kothagudem: Maoist militia deputy commander, five members surrender before police

They belong to Dokupadu and Puttapadu villages on Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders under Kistaram police station limits in Chhattisgarh State.

Kothagudem: A Maoist militia deputy commander and five militia committee members surrendered before the Kothagudem police and CRPF 141 Battalion officers at Bhadrachalam in the district on Sunday.

They belong to Dokupadu and Puttapadu villages on Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders under Kistaram police station limits in Chhattisgarh State. Militia deputy commander Kartam Pojja, militia members Ravva Sanna, Musiki Sanna and Kovasi Manga, committee members Madakam Joga and Ravva Lakka were the surrendered naxals.

---

The above six naxals have been working for the last few years along with the armed forces of Cherla Area Committee of Telangana and Kistaram Area Committee of Chhattisgarh and took part in several destructive incidents apart from planting IED bombs to kill policemen, police said.

As they were vexed with the ideologies of the banned CPI (Maoist) party and recognising the development going on in Telangana and Chhattisgarh, they decided to surrender to police after discussing with the villagers, Bhadrachalam ASP Paritosh Pankaj told the media.

The surrendered naxals were attracted by the awareness programmes conducted by Kothagudem police and CRPF 141 Bn as part of Operation Cheyutha recently. For some time now, the Maoists have lost the support and trust of the tribals and were limited to the forests of Chhattisgarh, he said.

With outdated ideologies, the Maoists were resorting to extortion besides obstructing the development of the agency area, the ASP said. While appealing to the Maoists to contact the nearest police station, district police directly or through family members to surrender he said surrendered naxals would be provided livelihood and rehabilitation.

CRPF 141 Bn commandant Ritesh Thakur, second in commandant Kamal Veer Yadav and assistant commandant Revathi Arjunan, Dummugudem CI, B Ashok, Cherla CI A Raju Verma and SI P Ganesh were present.