Telangana: Maoist shuns revolutionary path, joins mainstream
Ranjit, whose party name was Srikanth, was the Platoon Party Committee (PPC) member and was involved in four major assaults on security forces including the Jeeram attack in April 21
Hyderabad: A young Maoist leader who literally grew up with the Maoist ideology shunned the revolutionary path and joined the mainstream of life after he surrendered himself to the police here on Wednesday.
The surrendered naxalite, Ravula Ranjit also called Srikanth is the son of CPI-Maoist Central Committee member Ravula Srinivas alias Ramanna, who passed away in 2020 due to illness. His mother Madivi Savithri is a Divisional Committee Member (DVCM) of Kistaram Area Committee in Bastar and is still underground.
Ranjit, whose party name was Srikanth, was the Platoon Party Committee (PPC) member and was involved in four major assaults on security forces including the Jeeram attack in April 21 in which 26 security personnel and six party cadres died.
Announcing his surrender, Telangana police chief M Mahendar Reddy said Ranjit was indoctrinated with Maoist ideology from his childhood by his parents and was brought up at South Bastar of Chhattisgarh. He was educated in a Janatana Sarkar school run by Maoists in Puttapadu.
According to Mahendar Reddy, Ramanna secretly admitted Ranjit in Kakatiya School in Nizamabad on the name of R. Srikanth and studied up to Class X. During holidays, he used to visit Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) with the help of DVCM Nagesh.
Ranjit joined underground armed formations after completion of his Class X in April 2015. After Nagesh died in an exchange of fire in 2015, Ramanna decided not to send his son outside as he felt that the police came to know his son’s movements.
Ranjit throughout his lifetime educated tribals of Dandakaranya forest on the need to advance New Democratic Revolution (NDR) and was instrumental in propagating the ideology of CPI (Maoist) along with his father from April 2015 to November 2017 prior to joining in battalion.
Following an advice from his father, Ranjit joined CPI (Maoist) battalion in 2017 and worked in second platoon as a party member. In November 2019, Ranjit got elevated as PPC member. Ranjit surrendered before the police as he faced humiliation in the party after the demise of his father due to cardiac arrest.
Before surrendering before the police, Ranjit informed his mother also. Katta Ramachandra Reddy alias Rajudada alias Vikalp succeeded as secretary of DKSZC in August 2020 after the death of Ranjit’s father.
Ranjit participated in four brutal attacks as a battalion member on security forces
2018: Kasaram attack in which nine security personnel were killed when Maoists blew up a mine-proof vehicle
2020: Erram attack in which a Company Party Committee (CYPC) member died with no causalities to security forces
2020: Minapa attack in which 23 security personnel and three party cadres died in a deliberate ambush by Maoists. The party recovered 12 AK-47 and two Insas rifles from security forces
2021: Jeeram attack in which 26 security forces and six party cadres died. 14 firearms were recovered from security forces
* He participated in Thimpuram ambush, but it failed as the security forces avoided the ambush area
Give up arms, surrendered Maoist appeals cadre
Ravula Ranjit, who surrendered before the police here on Wednesday, realized that under the current circumstances, there are no grounds for the armed outfit to pursue revolutionary movement in the light of digital revolution coupled with welfare oriented and people friendly policies of the government.
“Ranjit feels that there is no reason to continue guerilla warfare and mindless violence by Maoists as people are getting enlightened and are no more prepared to tolerate it and that there is no relevance and acceptance for the movement in today’s context. He therefore, appealed to Maoist cadres including his mother to give up arms and join the mainstream,” DGP Mahendar Reddy said.
Though born and brought up in the thick of Maoist movement, Ranjit hailing from Warangal grasped that there was no relevance and acceptance for the movement in today’s context. He appealed to the Maoist cadres to give up arms and join the mainstream.
Ranjith confirmed that Yapa Narayana alias HB, a Central Committee Member and Telangana State Committee secretary died due to Covid. Narayana did not get proper treatment in the forest.
Maoists using children for orderly services: DGP
Director-General of Police M Mahendar Reddy here on Wednesday said they had information that the Maoists had been using children from bordering villages of Chhattisgarh and Telangana to carry their luggage, for cooking and to do their orderly work.
“The children are expected to go to schools, but instead of allowing them to go to schools, the Maoists were using the children to do their orderly work. By doing this, the Maoists were doing great disservice to children,” Reddy said while responding to a query at a press conference here.
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