By IANS
Hyderabad : A senior Maoist leader who masterminded the 2003 attempt to assassinate then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has been gunned down in Andhra Pradesh, authorities said Saturday.
Sande Rajamouli alias Prasad, who headed the Communist Party of India-Maoist in Karnataka, killed in gun battle with the police near the Dharmavaram railway station in Anantapur district. Anantapur borders Karnataka.
Rajamouli, a Central Committee member and Central Military Commission member of CPI-Maoist, apparently fired at the police in the company of another man and woman, police sources said.
Police claimed the policemen fired back killing him. The woman and the man, who were believed to be his bodyguards, escaped. None of the policemen was injured.
Police believe that Rajamouli was the one who masterminded the land mine explosion that almost killed Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri near Tirupati. Naidu had escaped with minor injuries.
Rajamouli's killing is the latest in a series of setbacks to the CPI-Maoist, which has lost several leaders including its numero uno in Andhra Pradesh last year. The killings of top leaders as well as arrests and surrenders of other cadres have considerably weakened the movement in the state.
Rajamouli, who carried a reward of Rs.1.2 million on his head, was killed at a time when the Maoists were reportedly planning to regroup in Nallamalla forests, their stronghold in Andhra.
The Maoist violence has claimed more than 6,000 lives in the state since 1969 when the guerrilla movement first began in Srikakulam district in north coastal Andhra.