Most wanted woman Maoist leader Sri Vidya arrested in Hyderabad

Hyderabad police arrested N. Sri Vidya, alias Karuna, a top Maoist leader with a Rs. 5 lakh bounty, from New Hafeezpet. The wife of prime accused in the Alipiri blast and IPS officer Umesh Chandra’s killing, Sri Vidya was deeply involved in CPI (Maoist) operations and recruitment of tribal youth in Chhattisgarh.

Hyderabad: The Miyapur police arrested N Sri Vidya alias Karuna, a most wanted State Committee Member of banned CPI (ML) at New Hafeezpet on Thursday. She was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on her head.

Sri Vidya, is wife of T Vasudeva Rao alias Ashanna, the state committee member of DKSZC and prime suspect in the assassination of IPS officer Umesh Chandra and Alipiri blast incident involving Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

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Police said Sri Vidya who hails from Nagarkurnool district had completed engineering from JNTU in Hyderabad and joined the maoist party in 1992. Her siblings were also active members of the party.

In the beginning she worked for Chaitanya Mahila Samakhya, frontal organisation of banned CPI (ML), PWG. Later, she joined the banned CPI (Maoist) party in 2006 as an underground (UG) cadre.

She promoted the party’s ideology among tribal children and youth in Visakhapatnam, Malkangiri, due to which many children and youth from tribal communities of Narayanpur, Kanker, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma district of Chhattisgarh joined in the CPI (Maoist) party.

Subsequently, she was promoted to the position of ACM, DCM and SCM (Area, Divisional, and State Committee Member, respectively). She was also involved in a criminal conspiracy case reported at LB Nagar in 2019.