Another one bites the dust: Why surrender of India’s top naxal Sudhakar is a big deal

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 13: Oggu Satwaji also known as Sudhakar is one of India's highest ranking naxalites. He was dangerous and was on the most wanted list of the National Investigation Agency.

However the security forces achieved a big shot in the arm after Sudhakar along with his wife, Neelima surrendered before the Telangana police. Incidentally this is the second high profile surrender by a naxalite, the last one being that of Jinugu Narasimha Reddy alias Jampanna in 2017.

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The surrender of Sudhakar is an important one considering that he was pat of the central committee and politburo, the highest decision making body of the CPI (Maoist). Apart from being part of the decision making team, he was also a strategist. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau say that his surrender will deal a blow to the plan by the naxalites, who are looking to revive their activities in south.

Trusted by all high ranking naxalites, Sudhakar was a key strategist and was put in charge of Jharkhand in 2015. He had managed to set up a strong base in Jharkhand.

Sources say that he was also hand picked by his bosses to lead the revival of the naxal movement in south. He was in charge of setting up a southern corridor for the naxalites, the source also added.

Sudhkar is a resident of Sarangpur in Telangana and joined the naxal movement in 1990 when he was in class 12. He rose in the ranks very soon and became area commander and later zonal committee member. He was put in charge of Odisha, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, southern Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Sources say that the area that he was given to cover is only an indicator of how important a player he was.

He along with his wife Neelima carried a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore on their heads. His surrender is a huge success for the security forces as he would help spill the beans on the operations of the naxalites. Sources also tell OneIndia that he is likely to get more naxalites to the surrender table.

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The source further adds that one of the key reasons for his surrender was that he was disgruntled with the ideology of the Maoists. Several naxals have over the past few years surrendered citing a similar reason. They say that the ideology of the naxal movement has completely changed and today it is more about extortion and blackmail rather than fighting for a cause.