Hyderabad: At one time, top Maoist leaders from Telangana were known for their commitment to the cause, and if money was extorted, it was for the functioning of the party.
B. Narayana, the younger brother of Sudhakar alias Oggu Satwaji, a Maoist central committee member, was arrested along with one Satyanarayana Reddy, a business partner of Sudhakar.
Ranchi senior superintendent of police Kuldeep Dwivedi said, “We found Rs 5 lakh in Narayana’s bag and Rs 20 lakh and the gold in Satyanarayana’s bag. Maoist leader Sudhakar was extorting the money and gold from contractors engaged in mining and from kendu leaf collectors.”
He said that during questioning, Narayana told the police that his brother had called him to the forest in Gumla district and given him the money for family expenses.
“Earlier, too, Sudhakar had called his brother to Gumla and Latehar jungles and given him money to run the family. The other accused, Satyanarayana, revealed that the Maoist leader had invested crores of rupees in gold and land,” Mr Dwivedi said.
Sudhakar, 56, is an expert in jungle guerrilla warfare. A reward of '25 lakh has been announced by the TS government for information about him. The Jharkhand government too has put a price on his head.
His wife Vaidugula Aruna, or Madhavi/Nilima, is also on the Bihar Jharkhand Special Area Committee (BJSAC) of the party. The couple is active in field operations in the tri-junction of Latehar, Lohardaga and Gumla districts in Jharkhand.
According to Intelligence sleuths, Sudhakar is the secretary and head of BJSAC as well as a member of the Maoist central committee. He joined the Radical Student Union while doing his intermediate in 1981-83 and went underground. He initially worked in Telangana and shifted to the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee. In 2016, he was transferred to the BJSAC.
