'Top Maoist leader in police custody'

A top Maoist leader, who was injured in an exchange of fire with the police in Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, is in police custody, civil rights leaders Gaddar and G Kalyan Rao alleged in Hyderabad on Wednesday night.

However, Home Minister K Jana Reddy denied reports that the Maoist leader Sudhakar was in police custody. 

Apprehending danger to Sudhakar's life, Gaddar and Kalyan Rao, who acted as Maoist emissaries in the aborted peace talks in October 2004, met the home minister at his residence in Hyderabad around 10 pm and urged him to intervene and ensure that Sudhakar is produced in the court.

They claimed that the police took T G L N Challam, alias Sudhakar alias Somanna, Andhra-Orissa Border Special Committee secretary of CPI-Maoist, into custody from Errasamanthavalasa village under Mukkava police station limits earlier in the day. 

Sudhakar was among the three top Maoist leaders who had held peace talks with the state government team led by Home Minister K Jana Reddy in October 2004. The talks were later called off by both sides in December 2004. 

On a tip-off that Sudhakar was visiting his brother K Krishna Murthy's house at Errasamanthavalasa village, special police parties rushed to the spot.

District superintendent of police said the police parties conducting combing operations at the village spotted a group of Maoists and asked them to surrender.

But the Maoists opened fire and the police retaliated. However, there were no casualties in the exchange of fire.

Subsequently, Sudhakar was caught by one of the constables, but he wriggled out and ran away.

Other Maoists also fled the scene.

After the firing stopped, the police recovered one AK-47 rifle, three magazines of ammunition and one transistor from the spot.

The police later arrested Krishna Murthy (43) and his wife Kolli Uma Devi (38) from the house.

The couple confessed they had come to meet the dalam (armed squad) members and to conduct a recce and provide information about the movement of security forces in the area.

However, Gaddar and Kalyan Rao alleged that Sudhakar was injured and he was very much in police custody and the police was putting out a false story that he ran away.

Apprehending danger to his life, they urged Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy to intervene and ask the police to produce him in the court.

Meanwhile, in another encounter in Yedugurallapalli forest in Chintur mandal in Khammam district, two Maoists, including a woman, were killed in an encounter in the afternoon.

Unofficial reports said the deceased Maoists were Jagadeesh, Khammam district committee secretary of CPI-Maoist and Swarapu, Cherla local guerilla squad commander. 

Swarupa is the wife of Jagadeesh.

A police party, which was conducting combing operations in Bhadrachalam region, came across a group of Maoists in the deep forests.

When the police asked them to surrender, they opened fire. In the exchange of fire, two Maoists were killed.

The police recovered a revolver and a tapancha from the encounter site. The district superintendent of police, however, said that the dead Maoists were yet to be identified.