The parents of arrested top Maoist leader Venkateshwar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak have not shown any interest in meeting their son, who has not visited home in the last 13 years.
The only child of Seshi Reddy and Ramakottama, residents of a small hamlet, Koppolu, nearly 100 km from
Hyderabad were informed of the arrest of their son on March 2 by the West Bengal CID, Superintendent of Police of Prakasham district in Andhra Pradesh Naveen Chanda told PTI over phone.
"It was our duty and we have informed his parents about his arrest in Kolkata, but they didn't make any formal request to meet their son," Chanda said.
Asked whether the district or state police would take the initiative if the parents wanted to meet Dipak, a close aide of the CPI (Maoist) politburo member Kishanji, he replied, "It is a very delicate issue and it will not be justified to make a comment on this right now.
"Let them make a formal request. The issue has a humanitarian angle. We will definitely consider it sympathetically," Chanda said.
According to the SP, Dipak left his home in 1989 after he became involved with student politics while studying engineering at Guntur Engineering College and then with Maoists.
"According to police reports he came back only once in 1997," Chanda said.
Asked whether Dipak, an explosives expert, was the only one to be influenced by Maoists in the district, the Prakasham district SP said, "The Maoist movement began in the state nearly 30 years ago and so it is impossible to say whether he was the only one from the district.
"The main problem with Maoist is that they change their names frequently. Though there is no concrete evidence I don't think a leader of his stature has ever hailed from this district."
The Andhra Pradesh government has declared a Rs 10 lakh reward for him as he was wanted in many cases, he said.
The West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh police, besides central intelligence agencies, is now grilling Dipak.
Dipak is a member of the Maoist State Military Commission, West Bengal chapter, and is in charge of Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, CID sources said.
He was responsible for detailed planning execution of operations, the sources said, and was behind all major strikes in West Bengal in recent times.