Senior Maoist leader and Central Committee Member Chelluri Narayana Rao alias Suresh, who participated in the operation in which TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Someswara Rao were shot dead in Araku on September 23, 2018, surrendered before Andhra Pradesh police on Monday.

Rao, a Central Committee Member (CCM) and Secretary of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC), worked in the CPI (Maoist) for about 36 years. He hails from Pedavanka village in Vajrapukotturu of Srikakulam district. Around November 1990, he was attracted to revolutionary ideology and joined the People’s War Group.

In 2003, he was promoted as a sub-zonal committee member and transferred to the State Military Commission (SMC) as a member. A year later, he was made a Central Committee Member.

As per police, Rao led the operation in which TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Someswara Rao were gunned down in an ambush in Araku. He is alleged to have snatched weapons from the leaders’ personal security officers and to have been involved in the murder of two AP Police personnel.

He also participated in several ambushes and raids in Neelabhadra, Koraput, Kuneru railway station, Nayagarh and elsewhere, in which several police personnel were killed, thousands of weapons looted, and multiple exchanges of fire reported across Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

As per the state’s surrender and rehabilitation policy, Rao will receive a reward of Rs 25 lakh along with other benefits.

Eight others, including Kartam Lachhu (Company Platoon Commander of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Bn); Podium Raje alias Rame (Area Committee Member (ACM), 13th Platoon, National Park area); Kartam Adame alias Nangi (PLGA Bn); Muchaki Masa alias Ajith, ACM, (Kalahandi-Kandhamal-Boudh-Nayagarh Divisional Committee (KKBN), Odisha State Committee); Madvi Jogi alias Rukuni (8 Company, KKBN DVC); Muchaki Laxman alias Lakma (Pamed Area Committee); Madivi Adama (Party Member, PLGA Bn); and Kadithi Hurre alias Urra (Party Member, 10th Company, DKSZC), also surrendered before AP DGP Harish Kumar Gupta.

Gupta said that sustained counter-insurgency efforts have reduced Maoist underground cadre strength in Andhra Pradesh to zero. He said the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) and Greyhounds have emerged as role models for other states in transforming counter-insurgency strategies from conventional policing to specialised guerrilla warfare and target-based intelligence operations.

Police displayed 19 weapons, including one INSAS rifle, two barrel grenade launchers, five .303 rifles, five single-barrel breech-loading guns, six other weapons, CORDEX wire and other equipment seized on precise intelligence inputs during raids on Maoist dens.