Maharashtra Maoist chief surrenders: Mallojula Venugopal Rao, 62 cadres lay down arms

NAGPUR: Senior astir guerrilla Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Sonu 'Bhupati', 69, the Central Committee powerhouse and politburo firebrand who had earlier appealed for a truce, surrendered astatine Gadchiroli constabulary office successful Maharashtra connected Tuesday with 62 cadres, signaling the extremity of state’s five-decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Bhupati, who led a relentless run against information forces for implicit 30 years and was the member of slain Maoist ‘Kishenji’, entered Gadchiroli aboriginal successful the greeting with his cadres and laid down 54 weapons.Holed up successful the booby-trapped, forested Maoist office of Abujmarh, the past remaining guerrillas had been nether siege arsenic the monsoon receded. Multi-state forces — C-60 commandos, Greyhounds, and CRPF units — had taken positions to tempest Abujmarh and flush retired the guerrillas. Bhupati’s wife, Tarakka, had paved the mode a twelvemonth earlier, surrendering aft 38 years of guerrilla activity; her bounty of Rs 1 crore underscored her formidable legacy.While authoritative records indicated astir 25 equipped holdouts remained, the surrendering convoy from Abujmarh swelled successful numbers connected Tuesday.Gadchiroli, the cradle of Maharashtra's reddish rebellion since the 1970s, breathed easier, bolstering Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s 2026 Naxal-free imaginativeness and signaling a large triumph for instrumentality enforcement successful the state.