Maoists confirm death of key leader Akkiraju Haragopal alias RK

The CPI (Maoist) party has confirmed the death of Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna (RK), a key figure in the Maoist movement in the country.

RK (63), CPI(M)'s central committee and politburo member, died on Thursday morning due to kidney failure and chronic illness, in the south Chhattisgarh forests.

“Comrade Haragopal had suddenly developed kidney complications. Though dialysis etc treatment was provided, he died of kidney failure and other health problems. The party could not save him despite extending good medical care,” a statement from Abhay, CPI(M) central committee representative said on Friday.

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RK was said to be suffering from chronic ailments for some time and the news of his death first came out on Thursday evening. “Haragopal's demise is an irreparable loss to the party,” Abhay said, adding that RK's final rites were held with tributes offered by the cadres.

RK, also known as Saketh, Madhu, Srinivas, was accused of several violent incidents in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and most prominent among them is the October 2003 claymore mine blast attack on Chandrababu Naidu at Tirupati. The then AP chief minister narrowly escaped the attempt on his life by the People's War Group, who was popular as Naxalites, which had posed a major law and order challenge to the state government for over two decades.

A year later, in October 2004, RK led the insurgent group's delegation participating in the truce negotiations in Hyderabad with Naidu's successor YS Rajasekhara Reddy government. The talks were abandoned after failing to make any headway.

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The PWG and the Maoist Communist Centre had merged in 2004 to form CPI (Maoists).

From school teacher to Maoist central committee member

RK was born in 1958 in remote Tumrukota village of Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district. He was attracted to the radical movement in his college days, influenced by Naxal leaders like Kondapalli Sitharamaiah. A postgraduate, RK joined the PWG in the early 1980s, after a brief stint as a school teacher.

RK became the secretary of People's War's AP committee in 2000 and in 2001 the central committee member. For about a decade till 2014, RK has led the outlawed group's activities in the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB). Made CPI(M) politburo member in 2018, he was continuing to guide the AOB operations.

RK's son Munna alias Prithvi who followed his father's footsteps into Naxalism was killed in the 2016 Ramaguda encounter in AOB, in which RK himself has purportedly escaped. RK's wife Sirisha, a former Maoist, now lives in Guntur.

RK was carrying a reward of about Rs one crore on his head, adding the bounties announced by the Odisha, Chhattisgarh etc Left-Wing Effected state governments.

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