Who is Angela Milind Teltumbde
Angela Milind Teltumbde (41), who was arrested at Thane on Monday, was very active in students' politics in Chandrapur in the 90s.
Angela Milind Teltumbde (41), who was arrested at Thane on Monday, was very active in students' politics in Chandrapur in the 90s.
Daughter of a school teacher, Angela Sontakke, married Milind Teltumbde, now the secretary of Maharashtra unit of CPI (Maoist) at Chandrapur in 1994.
It was said that Anuradha Ghandy, the then central committee member of Maoist group, was present at the marriage reception. Anuradha, wife of CPI (Maoist) politburo member, Kobad Ghandy, later died of malaria in Bastar jungles. Kobad Ghandy was arrested in Delhi a few years ago. Angela, who did MSc in Biology, was a school teacher in Chandrapur.
When Milind went underground, she left Chandrapur within a couple of years because of police harassment. She shifted to Mumbai four years ago and was associated with several rights groups.
Police were looking for her after the arrest of Sudhir Dhawale (42), an alleged aide of Teltumbde, at Wardha. Dhawale, a resident of Byculla was in Wardha to attend the Ambedkar Yuva Sahitya Sammelan when he was arrested in January this year.
Incidentally, Milind Teltumbde, Sudhir Dhawale and Angela belong to dalit community. Naxalite movement watchers in the region point out that a large number of educated dalit youths were motivated and drafted into the ultra-Left movement by naxalite ideologue Kobad Ghandy and his wife, Anuradha, both of whom used to stay in north Nagpur (a dalit dominated area in Nagpur) in the '80s. The Ghandys were instrumental in setting off the civil rights movement in Nagpur and Vidarbha during the period and involved more dalits to join them.
Later, they went underground and rest is history -- Kobad Ghandy became a politburo member and Anuradha became the central committee member of CPI (Maoist) before dying of cerebral malaria a few years ago.
Milind Teltumbde, whose brother Anand, a dalit scholar, is married to granddaughter of Babasaheb Ambedkar The deputy inspector general of police (DIG) of anti-naxal squad, Ravindra Kadam, claimed that Angela was one of the members of state committee of CPI (Maoist), Maharashtra unit. "She was also involved in a case at Deori in Gondia district," he informed.
Kadam dismissed the rumours that a couple of suspected naxalites were arrested in Vidarbha region after the arrest of Angela.