Top Maoist leader Venugopal, who gave call to give up arms, surrenders

NAgpur/Raipur: Senior Maoist leader and CPI (Maoist) politburo fellow member, Mallojula Venugopal false name Bhupathi, 69, the number one senior Naxal leader to call in for abandoning the armed battle, surrendered before the Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli police on Monday night along with 10 senior party leaders and 61-armed cadre, at Laheri, on the fringes of Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh.According to Gadchiroli police, Venugopal and his associates will formally lay down their arms before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, October 16, nine months after his wife surrendered before Fadnavis in Gadchiroli. “He was in negotiation with Maharashtra police for the last few days to negotiate the terms and conditions of the surrender with cadres,” a senior police official said. He has been kept in a safe house in the district and was being interrogated by intelligence officers, the official added, asking not to be named.Venugopal’s surrender reinforces perception of a split in senior ranks of the CPI(Maoist).This took the form of a six-page statement he released on September 17, advocating surrender, and claiming the Maoists were unable to adapt to India’s changing conditions and had suffered losses across their strongholds.The Communist Party of India (Maoist) central committee issued a statement in response, characterising Venugopal’s call for surrender as a personal position. Its spokesperson said the cadres should not get confused with Venugopal’s statement. “We shall continue and intensify our struggles against the fascist, anti-people policies of the BJP government,” he said.According to a senior intelligence official aware of the development, Venugopal first got in touch first with Telangana police around the time he released the statement.However, as the things did not work out with Telangana police, the intermediators contacted the Maharashtra police. “All the talks happened in the last three to four days,” said a senior Maharashtra police official who asked not to be named.Sandip Patil, Inspector General of Police (Anti-Naxalite Cell), Maharashtra, said, “Venugopal and 60 supporters surrendered before Gadchiroli police on Monday night. It appears that almost all active Naxal operatives in Gadchiroli district have now laid down arms.”Chhattisgarh’s Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said the development underscored a decisive shift in the region. “The people of Bastar are determined to end Naxalism,” he said. “His surrender today shows the changing ground realities. The administration will rehabilitate those who give up violence, but those who continue armed resistance will be dealt with firmly by security forces.”The Dandakaranya Zonal Committee (DKZC) — one of the most influential formations of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) — oversees six divisions, including the Gadchiroli division, where senior cadre Venugopal surrendered. The DKZC has long been the operational backbone of the Maoist movement in central India, coordinating activities across parts of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Telangana. Security officials said his surrender marks a further weakening of the Maoist network in the Dandakaranya region, which has been under sustained pressure from security forces.According to officials, 253 Maoists have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh since January 1 this year including Basvaraju, 70, CPI (Moaist) general secretary and two central committee members --- .Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67). Of them, 224 were killed in the Bastar division, which includes seven districts such as Bijapur, 27 in Gariaband district under the Raipur division, and two in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district of the Durg division.Under the state’s joint surrender and rehabilitation policy, 1,837 Maoist cadres have laid down arms in the last 20 months across the Bastar range. Officials said this reflects the combined impact of intensified security operations, development initiatives, and efforts to encourage surrender and reintegration.Former Special DGP of Chhattisgarh RK Vij said the surrender of Venugopal indicates the outfit’s weakening organisational condition. “Venugopal was one of the key ideologues and strategists of the CPI (Maoist), and his surrender clearly suggests that the party is in bad shape,” Vij said. He added that security forces have been continuously urging Maoists to surrender while maintaining an aggressive presence in core areas, which has significantly contributed to the recent wave of surrenders.Home minister Amit Shah had given March 2026 as the deadline to end Maoism in India with paramilitary operations against the rebels being carried out in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana, dismantling CPI (Maoist) cadre strength and weapon flow.Venugopal, a Brahmin, is from Telangana’s Peddapalli district and is younger brother of slain top Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishen ji, whose wife Pothula Kalpana alias Sujatha surrendered to the Telangana police in September citing health reasons. Kishenji, another politburo member of the CPI (Maoist), was killed in an encounter by the West Bengal police on November 24, 2011.He is also regarded as one of the founding members of the People’s War Group of CPI (ML), established in 1980. Over the decades, he rose through the ranks to become general secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and later a central committee member—the core decision-making body of the left-wing extremist organisation. Venugopal was a long time CPI (Maoist) spokesperson and also served as the divisional secretary in Gadchiroli.Following the death of CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju in an encounter in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, in May , Venugopal emerged as a frontrunner for the top post. However, Thippari Tirupati alias Devji, a hardliner, was ultimately chosen as general secretary, and Bhupathi was elevated to the politburo in June this year, according to police officials.Venugopal’s wife, Tarakka Sidam, herself a senior Maoist leader, surrendered before Chief Minister Fadnavis in January 2025.(With inputs from Srinivasa Rao in Hyderabad)