Chennai: Two Maoists killed in an encounter with Kerala police in Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in Kerala on Thursday were from Tamil Nadu, police sources said here. It was revealed that Ajitha alias Kaveri (45), who was killed on Tuesday, did her schooling in Chennai while Kuppusamy alias Kuppu Devaraj (60) was born in Krishnagiri district and was active in the banned CPI (Maoists) outfit in Madurai during early '90s. Both of them were engaged in spreading the Maoist ideology among tribal people and workers in Karnataka.
Kuppusamy was involved in a bank robbery in Madurai in the '90s and was arrested then. He came out on bail and disappeared, police sources recalled adding that since then he had been working among tribal people in Karnataka to spread Naxal ideology. He was a senior member of the Western Ghats special zonal committee of CPI (Maoists). There was no case against Ajitha alias Kaveri in Tamil Nadu. She was from Ambattur and studied in a city college before getting attracted to Maoist ideology and moved to Karnataka. She was unmarried.
Kuppusamy was one of the men wanted by TN Q branch, sources said adding that the Tamil Nadu police are still looking for Naxal activists like Padma, Manivasgam, Karthik, Mahalingam, Velmurugan, Kalidas and Bagat Singh. All these suspected Maoists cadres are wanted in different cases. In July, three most wanted women Maoist cadres of TN — Reena Joecy Mary (36), Kala alias Janaki (52) and Chandra (46) — were arrested by the Q branch, the wing that deals with extremism.
Police believe that that top leaders of the banned outfit wanted to create Dalams (an armed unit) for CPI (Maoist) in every state. Though they could not generate much support locally, the Naxal activists in the state are reportedly working amid tribal people as well as highly exploited work force in other areas. Sources noted it was possible that a 50-strong group of Maoists could be active in the 'tri-junction' of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu borders and were planning to form Kabini dalam, Nadukani dalam and Bhavani dalam in three different states.
The Western Ghats special zonal committee of CPI (Maoists) and its People's Liberation Guerrilla Army were claiming that they stand for all sections of suppressed people and were working overtime to bring in a united armed struggle against 'feudalism and imperialism' for Adivasis and dalits in the tri-junction area.
