Chennai: Kalidas, 47, the most wanted Naxal operative from the state, was nabbed in Agali, Palakkad, by Kerala police on Thursday, police sources here said.
Kalidas, who is believed to be the mainstay behind the People’s War Group in Tamil Nadu, is facing at least 17 cases in Tamil Nadu and many other cases in Karnataka.
Kalidasan also known as Kalidasaraja alais Sekhar is said to be the commander of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army in the tri-junction. There are several cases registered against him in Dharmapuri and Ramanathapuram, his native district, for possessing and storing arms.
TN police has been on the lookout for him for the last two decades and believed that Kalidas has been giving arms training to fresh recruits. “He is an important man and had been very active for the last many years in the TN unit of the Maoist outfit,” a source said.
Sleuths from Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch, monitoring terror suspects and Naxals in the state, had been claiming that Kalidas was holed up in tri-junction jungle – the area comprising forest of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka — along with some other cadres.
Kaslidas like many other members of Maoist groups has been travelling from one state to another through tri-junction jungles and managed to dodge the police effectively in the past.
Most of the wanted naxals use tri-junction route and even Kerala’s most wanted Maoist man Roopesh was also using tri-junction hub for traveling from one state to another before he was nabbed in Coimbatore in May 2015.
Kalidas, termed capitalist among naxals, has already earned him a few enemies within the red outfit, because of his autocratic way of functioning and his alleged tendency to exploit women cadres.
Two years ago he faced problem within the Naxal group when other members started questioning his relationship with a female cadre.
