Hyderabad: Top Maoist leader and Maharashtra Maoist State Committee member Gajarla Ashok surrendered before the police on Wednesday due to his failing health, said sources.
While there were speculations that the police had arrested Gajarla Ashok alias Aitu alia Janardhan in Adilabad, sources in the police said that he himself had surrendered and would be produced before the media later.
Ashok, who had participated in peace talks with the then Andhra Pradesh government in 2005, carried a reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head.
Hailing from Velishala village in Chityala mandal of Warangal district, Ashok was the second among three brothers.
His elder brother G. Saraiah alias Azad, was killed in an encounter in 2008, while his younger brother Gajarla Ganesh alias Ravi alias Uday is currently the Malkangiri-Koraput Border (MKB) divisional committee secretary.
Ashok’s surrender comes as a setback to the Maoist party which is trying to regroup. Meanwhile, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, responding to the reports of Ashok’s arrest, demanded that he be produced before court.
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