Most wanted Maoists had been frequenting Kerala

NEW DELHI: It could be a bit of information that could keep Kerala cops on their toes. Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi, the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) and the most wanted man in the country, had been in Kerala at least twice in the past one year.

More, the central committee meeting of the CPI (Maoist) was held in Kerala. And still more, Kerala was the place from where the office of the South West Regional Bureau (SWRB) of the Maoist functioned for almost one year. Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra come under SWRB. The Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Andhra Pradesh Police knew that the top Maoist leader frequented Kerala after they tracked down Malla Raja Reddy, the secretary of SWRB and a member of the central committee. The SIB postponed arresting Malla Raja Reddy as they wanted to net both Reddy and Ganapathi at one go.

But Reddy somehow smelt that the SIB was after him and was planning to shift his base from Kerala. The SIB came to know about Reddy’s plan and picked him up the day he was planning to move out of the state.

Sources told Express that Maoists chose Kerala as a meeting place as there were ``less enemy concentration in the state at that time.’’ There were less Maoist activities in Kerala and there were no police attention on the movement of their leaders.

Ganapathi, who hails from Beerpur in Karim Nagar district in Andhra Pradesh, had worked under the legendary Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, in the CPI-ML (Peoples War). The 55- year-old former school teacher became the general secretary of the party after the removal of Seetharamaiah in 1992. He became the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) after the People’s War merged with the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) in 2004.

Sources said Ganapathi is now operating from Abujmarh, a place in Bastar bordering Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. It is a liberated zone of the Maoists which is still impregnable for the police. The area is still not surveyed by the government and the authorities do not know how many villages are there and what the population is. The party Congress of the People’s War was held here in 2001 March. Rehearsals for major operations of the Maoists and their training camps are held at Abujmarh.

Ganapathi, who used to give interviews to select journalists, has become extremely secretive now after the series of the arrests of top leaders of the movement. Sources said that after the arrest of Malla Raja Reddy from Angamali in Ernakulam the office of the SWRB has been shifted to another place.

Maoists now realise that Kerala is no longer a safe place after the arrest. A few groups of the SIB and Grey Hounds of the Andhra Pradesh police are still positioned at various locations in Kerala expecting some more prize catches.

Malla Raja Reddy, who is being tried for cases including the murder of former Andhra Speaker Sreepada Rao, has not uttered a single word during the interrogation by different agencies. He continues an adamant stand. sources said. The Kerala Police have not got any information about Reddy’s local contact from his mouth. They located the house Reddy lived at Perumbavoor near Ernakulam one month after the arrest when the house owner informed the police.

The two persons who arranged the house for Reddy had been absconding after the police located the house. Police believe that they could get valuable details about the Maoists if the laptop used by Reddy was recovered.

Meanwhile, the central leadership of the CPI (Maoist) has exonerated a state leader from the charge that Reddy fell into the police net because he leaked information to the police.

There were charges from some corners that Reddy’s arrest would not have been possible but for the help from inside. The central committee, after an enquiry, found out that the charge was baseless and the police got information about Reddy from other sources.

They are also in the process of blocking loopholes to prevent furtheroccurrences of such incidents.