Sukma/Bijapur, Apr 5 (PTI) Two Naxalites, carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh each on their heads, surrendered before the police in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Friday, and two others were arrested in the adjoining Bijapur district, officials said.
Kalmu Prakash alias Sannu (28) and woman cadre Pedkam Rita (30) turned themselves in before senior police officials in Sukma, citing disappointment with “hollow” and “inhuman” Maoist ideology, Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran G Chavan said.
The duo also said they were impressed by the district police’s rehabilitation drive ‘Puna Narkom’ (a term coined in the local Gondi dialect which means new dawn, new beginning), he said.
Prakash was inducted into the outlawed outfit as a member of the local organisation squad in 2007 and has worked in various capacities, the official said.
He was also a guard for senior leader Papa Rao, who masterminded deadly attacks on security forces in south Bastar in 2008-09, he said.
Prakash was active as a divisional committee member in the south Bastar division of Maoists, and was allegedly involved in attacks on security personnel in Sukma, including the 2017 Burkapal attack in which 25 CRPF personnel were killed, he said.
Rita was in PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerilla Army) battalion no. 1 of Maoists, and her husband Nagesh, who was a Maoist commander, recently surrendered before the police, the official said.
She was also involved in several encounters between the security forces and Naxalites, he said.
Chavan said the duo were carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh each on their heads.
They would be provided facilities in keeping with the surrender and rehabilitation policy, he said.
In Bijapur, Kursam Ramchandram (40) was arrested from the Modakpal police station area on Thursday, while Mangu Telam (28) was apprehended on Friday from another place in the same area, another officer said.
There were four warrants pending against Ramchandram and one against Telam at Modakpal police station, he said. PTI COR TKP ARU
