Monday 25 May 2009

Top Maoist Patel Sudhakar Reddy killed in encounter

By U Sudhakar Reddy
Two top Maoists, including the extremists’ central committee member Patel Sudhakar Reddy were killed in an encounter with the police in Tadwai forests in the district on Sunday morning.
Reddy, also member of the Maoists’ central military commission, carried a Rs 12-lakh reward on his head and was said to have plotted some of the biggest attacks in the country.
Reddy alias Suryam had masterminded the assassination attempts on the then chief minister, Mr N.Chandrababu Naidu, near Tirupati in November 2004 and the former chief minis ter, Mr N. Janardhan Reddy, in Nellore last year.
He was also accused in the killing of IPS officers K.L.Vyas and Umesh Chandra and had plotted raids on police stations.
The other slain Maoist was identified as K. Venkataiah, state committee member who also headed the Maoists’ tech unit. He was also named in the assassination attempt on Mr Naidu.
The Warangal superintendent of police. Mr V.C.Sajjannar, said the police was on intensified search operations after they were alerted from across the border that Maoists were entering the district from Chhattisgarh.
The encounter took place at around 5.30 am when the police came across a group of Maoists who were holding a meeting in the forest.
Police said that the Maoists opened fire though they were asked to surrender.
Police returned fire, killing the two top Maoists, while others fled the scene. The police recovered an AK-47rifle, an 8 mm rifle and a 9 mm pistol from the site, apart from Rs 20,000 and three kit bags. The AP High Court on Sunday issued orders to the Warangal police to conduct a second post-mortem examination of the body of Patel Sudhakar Reddy.
The order came on a house motion moved by a civil liberties activist, Prof.
S. Seshaiah. Police sources said Reddy was involved in the seige of Nayagarh, Orissa, on February 25, 2008, in which Maoists killed 13 policemen and looted 1,200 weapons.
Police see his hallmark in the attack on Greyhounds at the Balimela reservoir last year, where 36 personnel were killed. “Reddy is a key strategist who used laptop regularly. His speeches are fiery and he is popular,” said an official.
Police said Reddy was an expert bomb maker and had played a key role in developing claymore mines and rocket launchers. He was also an accused in the killing of former home minister A. Madhava Reddy.
Reddy was an engineering graduate and completed his LLB from Raichur, Karnataka.
He joined the naxals while doing his post graduation at OU.

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