Chhattisgarh: Maoist Taraka's Surrender Leads to Fall of 2 Naxal Strongholds
Bhupathi was the architect behind spreading influence of Maoists in Gadchiroli and Abujhmad making in the process the two densely forested and hilly regions, the impregnable forts of Naxals.
Raipur: The surrender of top woman Naxal Taraka, wife of ex- Maoist politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Bhupathi, had led to the fall of two crucial rebel strongholds, Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, a senior police officer said on Monday.
Sixty-one-year-old Vimla Chandra Sidam alias Taraka who ran Maoist movement in Gadchiroli for the last 38 years surrendered in Gadchiroli in January this year triggering surrender spree of women Naxals in the rebel strongholds of Gadchiroli and Abujhmad, subsequently, a senior police officer said.
Taraka’s surrender was said to have prompted Bhupathi, the ex-boss of the Naxal military commission carrying a bounty of Rs ten crore in four states, to lay down arms along with 60 other hardcore Maoists in Gadchiroli in September this year, thus decimating Maoist bastion of Gadchiroli.
“Bhupathi was wooed through his wife Taraka by the security establishment of Maharashtra to surrender with the assurance of allowing the couple to live together in Gadchiroli”, the police officer said, requesting not to be quoted.
Bhupathi was the architect behind spreading influence of Maoists in Gadchiroli and Abujhmad making in the process the two densely forested and hilly regions, the impregnable forts of Naxals.
He had key Maoist leaders of the two regions as his loyalists and his surrender had triggered the biggest ever mass surrender of Naxals led by the Maoist Central Committee (CC) member Rupesh alias T Vasudev Rao in Chhattisgarh at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, on October 17 this year, sources said.
Rupesh was said to be a diehard supporter of Bhupathi and launched the campaign of shunning armed struggle among the Naxal leaders following a similar call given by Venugopal, sources said.
The Maad Divisional Committee, under which jurisdiction Abujhmad area comes, had also publicly announced its support to Bhupathi’s call to lay down arms and join the mainstream.
More than four dozen cadres and leaders of Maad Division were among the 210 hardcore Maoists who surrendered at Jagdalpur on October 17.
Incidentally, of the 210 surrendered Maoists, 110 were females.
The surrender of Maoists on such an unprecedented scale at Jagdalpur on October 17 has decimated the Naxal bases in Abujhmad and North Bastar, the police officer said.
The Security forces had first made a huge dent in Maoist stronghold of Abujhmad when CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju was killed in an encounter in the area in May this year.
