After 14 Years in Bastar, IG Sunderraj Moves to NIA
Mr. Sunderraj had a glimpse of the horrific face of Maoism when he was first posted in the Bastar region as a young IPS officer.
Raipur: Through 14 years, he had served in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh in various positions from superintendent of police (SP) to Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sunderraj Pattilingam, 46, saw peaking of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) to end of Maoism in the tribal belt, before moving to National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday.
Mr. Sunderraj had a glimpse of the horrific face of Maoism when he was first posted in the Bastar region as a young IPS officer.
At that time, the LWE was at its peak in Bastar, so also was the Salwa Judum movement, the anti-Naxal civil vigilante campaign, led by senior Congress leader and former minister, Mahendra Karma, slain by Naxals in May 2013 ambush on a Congressmen in Jheeram Ghati in Bastar.
He was moved out of Bastar after some time.
Mr. Sunderraj returned to Bastar as deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police in 2017 and served in the region uninterrupted June 2026 during which period he became IG.
Known as ‘top counterinsurgency cop’, Mr. Sunderraj’s biggest assets are his calm and composed demeanour, purely a team man, and more importantly a favourite of the media, uncharacteristic of a counterinsurgency cop.
“Mr. Sunderraj is perhaps the only Bastar IG who is always ready to cooperate with the media at any time under any circumstances”, a senior journalist of Bastar said.
His stint in Bastar saw both big success for security personnel in the fight against Maoists as well as serious setbacks in the form of killing of jawans in the Naxal ambushes.
“His way of managing emotions even in a trying period is amazing. He demonstrated his leadership quality by maintaining a composed demeanour even when security forces suffered serious setbacks”, one of his colleagues recounted.
His tenure saw the biggest turning point in the counterinsurgency when CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju was gunned down in an encounter, the first such case in the history of the outlawed outfit, in Abujhmad in Bastar in May 2025, besides the sunset of Naxalism in Bastar on March 31 this year.
He leaves behind a rich legacy as a ‘top counterinsurgency cop’, a senior police officer said.
He was accorded a warm farewell by his colleagues in Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, on the occasion.
