MUMBAI: Mallojula Venugopal Rao (Bhupati), a senior Central Committee member of the banned CPI (Maoist)n along with 60 other cadres surrendered to state police at Fodewada village, Bhamragad, during the night of October 13–14 in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The surrender marks a milestone in the state’s anti-Maoist campaign.
Bhupati Among High-Value Targets
Bhupati (70), also known by aliases such as Sonu, Sonu Dada, Abhay, Master, Vivek, and Venu, is regarded as one of the chief strategists of the extremist movement. He has been a high-value target with bounties ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore across Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, reported NDTV.
The group that laid down arms included two State Zonal Committee members, ten Divisional Committee members, and cadres from Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Officials say Bhupati’s surrender deals a decisive blow to Maoist operations in Gadchiroli, a region long plagued by extremist activity. Born into a family of freedom fighters and temple priests in Peddapalli, Venugopal rose through the ranks to lead the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and was tasked with establishing a guerrilla corridor from Goa to Idukki in Kerala, a report in The New Indian Express said.
Bhupati’s surrender comes weeks after he publicly proposed a ceasefire and sought peace talks with the government. Security forces have intensified operations this year, resulting in significant losses for the Maoist movement, and the surrender signals a weakening of extremist influence in the region, reports say.
