Maoist leader Venugopal Rao's surrender a welcome step, says nephew

Hyderabad: Senior Maoist Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Bhupathi surrendering before the Maharashtra Police was a welcome move, his nephew said on Tuesday.

Mallojula Dilip Sharma alias Santosh, said he had never seen his uncle as he had left home even before he was born.

Sharma, is the son of Venugopal’s elder brother Anjaneyulu, a retired employee of a cooperative bank.

The senior Maoist surrendered before police along with 60 other cadres in Maharashtra’sGadchiroli district, officials said on Tuesday.

One of the influential strategists in the banned organisation, Venugopal, a member of the central committee and Politburo, carried a bounty of Rs 6 crore, an official said.

According to Sharma, Venugopal is the youngest of three sons of Mallojula Venkataiah and Madhuramma.

“They (Mallojula Venugopal Rao and Mallojula Koteswara Rao) left home before I was born. My grandmother had a strong desire to see her sons before she died. Both the brothers were well educated and had sacrificed their lives for society. As per the times, everyone needs to change. We welcome his surrender,” Sharma told PTI over the phone.

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Born in Peddapalli in Telangana, Venugopal and Koteswara completed their bachelor degrees in Karimnagar and shifted to Hyderabad to pursue a masters in Osmania University from where they espoused Maoist ideology and went underground.

Koteshwara, better known as Kishanji, was killed in an encounter with police in West Bengal in 2011.

Koteshwara was a Maoist politburo member, the third in-command of the outfit and in-charge of its armed operations in West Bengal’s Jangalmahal region since 2009.

Venugopal’s father Venkataiah, a freedom fighter, died in 1997 and Madhuramma in 2022.

According to sources, Venugopal had long supervised platoon operations along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarhborder.

However, growing differences between him and the top Naxal leadership in recent months led to an internal conflict, they said.

According to Telangana police, Venugopal called for “temporarily renouncing armed struggle” and issued an oral and also written statement on August 15 claiming they were ready for a ceasefire.

He issued another statement in September stating that it (laying down arms) was discussed in the central committee and politburo and decided accordingly even before the then CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed (by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21).

The call for “laying down arms” by Venugopal, gained support with the North sub-Zonal, West sub-Zonal Bureau of CPI (Maoist) besides the Maad division committee of Maoists (favouring surrender).

Venugopal had claimed that the armed struggle failed and appealed for a shift towards peace and dialogue, citing diminishing public support and the loss of hundreds of cadres.

His stand was met with resistance from other senior cadres who decided to continue the fight under another leader, sources said.

Under pressure from the central Naxal leadership, he eventually agreed to lay down arms, announced his exit from the outfit, and surrendered with his followers before the Gadchiroli police, they said.

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