For the past 25 years he did not come out of jungle. A man who had spent most part of his life in the tropical forest, CPI(Maoist) politburo member Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, has been killed in a 30-minute gun battle between the rebels and joint forces inside the dense forest of
Burishol in West Midnapore.
Born on July in 1956 at Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh he became one of the most internal threat for the Indian government. During his life he was caught despite repeated attempts of the police of several states. A politburo member Kishenji came to Bengal for spreading his organisation.
Kishenji served as CPI(Maoist) Andhra Pradesh state secretary between 1982-1986 and was in-charge of Dandkaranya unit between 1986-1992. He worked in North East between 1992-2000 and achieved success in collaborating with insurgence groups of the North East. He was based in Bangal and neighbouring states since 2000.
He organised the attack on Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee, West Bengal's former chief minister at West Midnapore in 2008. Bhattacherjee was returning after inaugurating a project at Salboni by Jindal
In October 2009, Kishenji and his team abducted Atindranath Dutta, the in-charge of Sankrail police station after killing two policemen. After two days, the OC was released after 15 tribal women were released on bail by Jhargram court.
In February 2010, Kishenji organised the attack on the paramilitary force camp in Silda. The Maoist killed 24 jawans and looted a huge cache of arms.
He played a key role in formation of the PW unit in Bengal and in PW's merger with erstwhile Maoist Communist Center of India (MCCI) in 2004. Apart from politburo, he was a central military commission member since the formation of CPI(Maoist) in 2004.