Hyderabad : A top Maoist leader surrendered before Andhra Pradesh Home Minister K. Jana Reddy here Saturday.
Lanka Venkata Papi Reddy alias Ranganna alias Latchanna, a member of the central committee of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered before the minister due to ill health.
The 47-year-old Maoist, who carried a reward of Rs.1.2 million on his head, told reporters he decided to join the mainstream due to his failing health.
The home minister promised to give him the reward amount and offer other assistance for his rehabilitation.
“We will also look into the possibility of withdrawing cases against him,” he said.
Papi Reddy had sent a message to the Andhra Pradesh police, expressing his desire to surrender. “I am surrendering on my own due to my health problems,” he said but declined to answer more queries.
Papi Reddy was wanted by the police forces of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand. A native of Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh, he was active in the Maoist movement for 25 years. There were 45 criminal cases registered against him in the four states.
The surrender of the top Maoist is being seen as yet another blow to the Maoist movement, which has considerably weakened in Andhra Pradesh during last two years due to the killings of several top leaders by police and a series of surrenders by the armed cadre.
The Maoist worked as deputy commander and commander in the forested Bastar region (now in Chhattisgarh) in the early 1980s. He was made a Warangal district committee member in 1987 and promoted as district committee secretary in 1989.
He remained in Telangana region for nearly a decade working as secretary of the Mulug area committee, a member of the North Telangana Forest Division Committee and a squad commander of the Warangal district committee.
Later, he was shifted back to Bastar and in 2001 he became a central committee member. A few weeks ago, he was made the in-charge of Haryana state.
Papi Reddy had married Saroja, also a Maoist, in Bastar in 1991. His daughter Lanka Tejasri was adopted by Warangal District Superintendent of Police Soumya Mishra in 2006 when he had sent her to her grandparents in his native Takkellapadu village.