Hyderabad
Telangana police arrested the most-wanted member of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its central committee member Sanjoy Deepak Rao in Hyderabad on Friday, state director general of police Anjani Kumar said.
The DGP told reporters that Rao, who has been the special zonal committee of south regional bureau of the Maoist party operating from western ghats in the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, was apprehended by the Cyberabad police near Malaysian Township at Kukatpally.
“The Telangana special intelligence bureau (SIB) has been tracking the movements of this high profile target, a native of Shivagandha Nagar, Ambernath East police station of Thane district in Maharashtra, for a long time,” Kumar said.
The police seized a revolver with six live rounds, a laptop and other articles along ₹47,250 in cash from Rao’s possession.
Rao, who has several pseudonyms such as Anil and Vikas in Kerala, was an electrical engineering graduate from the then Regional Engineering Collage (REC), now NIIT, Jammu and Kashmir in early 1980s. He was attracted towards left-wing extremist ideology under the influence of his father who was a strong Communist Trade Union leader.
“While he was studying B Tech at J & K, he and some of his friends supported the separatist movement of Kashmir people. In 1999, he along with Konath Muralidharan alias Ajith formed CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari group and was made in-charge of Maharashtra.
{{/usCountry}}“While he was studying B Tech at J & K, he and some of his friends supported the separatist movement of Kashmir people. In 1999, he along with Konath Muralidharan alias Ajith formed CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari group and was made in-charge of Maharashtra.
{{/usCountry}}He was arrested twice in 2000 and 2005 and was released on bail. In 2014, when the CPI (ML) merged with the CPI (Maoist), Rao became an active leader of the party and was deputed to Maad in Chhattisgarh. He was then taken into the central committee. He carries a reward of ₹25 lakh on his head.
“He came to Hyderabad four days back and was proceeding to Maad, Chhattisgarh for attending a meeting. On specific inputs, the police arrested him this morning,” the DGP said.