Kothagudem: Maoists kill woman cadre branding her as police informer

Radha's body was said to have been abandoned in a forest area on Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders at Chennapuram in Cherla mandal in Kothagudem district.

Kothagudem: The CPI (Maoist) leadership allegedly killed a female cadre, who worked as a protection team commander in Andhra-Odisha border area, branding her as a police informer.

Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) secretary Ganesh in a statement released to the media on Wednesday revealed about the killing of the cadre Neelso alias Banti Radha (Pallepati Radha), who hails from Balaji Nagar (new Indira Nagar) near ECIL in Hyderabad. He alleged that intelligence officials of AP, Telangana and Chhattisgarh police planned to damage Maoists by identifying ideologically weak cadre in the party and organising them as covert operatives to obtain information. As part of their plan, police trapped Radha and made her work for them.

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After completing Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology (DMLT) course she joined the Maoists in 2018 voluntarily. For the last six years, she served as dalam member, military instructor and as a protection team commander. She was removed from the position of commander because of her indiscipline and crossing of the party line regarding marriage and man and woman relationship. It resulted in the end of her revolutionary life, Ganesh said.

After Radha joined Maoists, police put pressure on her family to bring her out of the party and offered her brother Suryam a job and money. Suryam turned an agent for the police, started working in the intelligence wing and organised a team with Preethi, Raju and Suresh. A few months ago, police tracked down Radha’s mobile phone number and contacted her through one of her friends, Mamata, asking her to surrender, but she denied. The police then subjugated her by threatening to jail and kill her family members, Ganesh alleged. Later, at the behest of police, Suryam called Radha explaining about the problems in the family and asked her to either surrender or give information he sought to address the problems. She consented to do so and came in touch with Telangana and Chhattisgarh police intelligence officials and started sharing key information about the party leadership and its movements, Ganesh said.

Radha was guided to form a team with a few covert operatives in the party to execute police’s plan to eliminate the Maoist leadership but the party was able to identify them and to foil their plot. Some of the covert operatives were expelled from the party while some others like Neelso were given the death penalty, he said.It was said that in 2017, Radha’s mother Pochamma lodged a complaint with Peddabayalu police station in Andhra Pradesh about Radha’s disappearance. The NIA was said to be investigating Radha’s missing case. She carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on her head.

Radha’s body was said to have been abandoned in a forest area on Telangana-Chhattisgarh borders at Chennapuram in Cherla mandal in Kothagudem district. The local police recovered the body and booked a case in connection with the incident.