JOIN USAP police arrest senior Maoist leader Sudarshan
After a two-day hunt, Andhra Pradesh Police succeeded in nabbing top maoist Sriramula Srinivas alias Sudarshan in the Khammam district bordering Chhattisgarh.
Sudarshan, 55, of Nalgonda district and a CPI (Maoist) central committee member (eighth in hierarchy) and a secretary of the party’s Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB), was trying to escape along with his wife and other activists in a van when the police nabbed him.
He is wanted in connection with 40 cases in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, including the assassination of former home minister (TDP) Alimineti Madhav Reddy and assassination attempt on former CM Chandrababu Naidu. He is also accused number 4 in the kidnapping of Malkangiri collector Vineel Krishna in Orissa.
Khammam district Superintendent of Police A V Ranganath said Sudarshan, whose head carried a reward of Rs 20 lakh, was caught in a dramatic manner. Police had thrown a dragnet in border towns on information that the rebel leader and his family had entered Andhra border from Odisha for medical treatment on Friday night.
Police caught Sudarshan and were bringing him to Wyra police station when he jumped out of the running police jeep and escaped into maize fields outside the town, about 245 km from Hyderabad.
Police fired on him and injured him in the leg. Meanwhile the vehicle with his family also sped away and vanished in the nearby forest.
Police intensified search for Sudarshan by circulating his photo in the entire town and surrounding villages. Sudarshan, who spent the night in a maize field, entered a village where he pretended to be a mad man. He tried to keep the villagers away by stoning them.
However, on a tip off, police reached the spot and cornered him even as he threw stones on them.
After the treatment of his leg wound, Sudarshan was brought to Khammam town under heavy security, they said.The Maoist leader has over 22 cases in Andhra Pradesh and 18 in Odisha and was arrested in 2007 in Odisha but released on bail in 2009 after which he went underground. He was arrested in Odisha in connection with the Balimela massacre and was released from in exchange for the release of the then Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna, who was abducted by Maoists and released in 2011.
Sudarshan’s wife Vimala, who also carried a cash award of Rs 6 lakhs on her head and involved in a dozen cases, was also with him but escaped with her two daughters, police said.
Senior Andhra Pradesh officials said several senior Maoist leaders have crossed over to Andhra border towns in the last two months for medical treatment.
Another prominent member, Gopalakrishna, son of top maoist Hargopal alias Ramakrishna, was in Srikakulam town but escaped after he was caught last week, police said.