Woman Maoist with ₹4 lakh reward surrenders
K Lakshmi, who joined the Maoist ranks in 2008, worked as member of the Gumma Area Committee of the Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee and surrendered on Thursday.
Ten days after the Odisha police killed seven Maoists in two encounters, a senior woman Maoist cadre with a cash reward of ₹4 lakh on her head surrendered before the Malkangiri police on Thursday.
K Lakshmi alias Sweta alias Kumari who worked as member of the Gumma Area Committee of the Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee surrendered before Malkangiri SP Jagmohan Meena on Thursday. Lakshmi, who joined the Maoist ranks in 2008, belonged to Arabeti village under Kalimela police station of Malkangiri.
Wife of another area committee member Dhananjaya Gope alias Sudheer, Lakshmi is suspected to have played a role in the 2009 attack on Nalco among a half-a-dozen other cases. Meena said Lakshmi would get monetary assistance as per the surrender and rehabilitation scheme of the Odisha government. The SP said Lakshmi’s husband is also planning to surrender soon.
The surrender comes weeks before the bridge over river Gurupriya in Malkangiri connecting more than 20,000 people in the cut-off area is thrown open to the public. The bridge would give a major toe-hold to the security forces who can quickly move inside the Maoist bastion.
On May 13-14, seven Maoists – including two top cadres – were killed in operations launched on the basis of intelligence reports in Kandhamal and Bolangir districts. The Odisha government had announced a cash reward of ₹10 lakh to the Bolangir and Kandhamal police for the two encounters.
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