One of the Maoists who died in the encounter with police on Telangana-Chhattisgarh border on Friday has been identified as Vivek Kodamagundla (19), a dropout from five year integrated law course at Pendekanti Law College in Hyderabad.

Vivek’s death shook Suryapet, his native town, as the residents were caught unawares about his Maoist connections. They narrated tales about how they treated him as a child.

Neighbours of Vivek’s house at Bhagat Singh Nagar told The Hindu that Vivek and his elder brother Srinivas Krishna who were of their age used to play with them throughout their childhood. Srinivas Krishna completed B-Tech from a private college in Hyderabad and was on hunt for job. Vivek took active part in Telangana movement.

Vivek's mother Madhavi and father Yogananda Chary and many other close relatives were all government teachers. Chary was a school assistant in mathematics at Noothankal village while his wife Madhavi taught at Kummaraguntla village of Warangal district.

He was a student of Kakatiya Concept School in Suryapet up to seventh class but shifted to Warangal to be with his mother. A teacher of the school said Vivek performed well in social studies but his father admitted him for coaching to IIT course. Vivek last contacted a girl classmate at the school by Facebook to know what their friends were doing.

A teacher closely associated with the family said that Chary was associated with RSS during his childhood but started working with communists since his post graduation days at Osmania University. He was currently associated with Democratic Teachers Federation.

Meanwhile, Chary and Madhavi met revolutionary writer Varavara Rao in Hyderabad and told him that Vivek left home expressing his stubbornness to work for “liberating poor people from oppression” on October 9. He called up Chary over phone a week later and informed him that he will return home.

The Telangana secretary of CPI (Maoist) Jagan in a statement in Khammam said Vivek and two other women died in unilateral firing by police while returning from a party assignment in Lankapalli forest on Telangana – Chhattisgarh border.

Jagan identified Vivek as a dalam commander who joined the party only last year.

Vivek chose the path of liberating poor people. The encounter was part of the third phase of `Green Hunt’ launched by State and Central governments.

(Reporting by T. Karnakar Reddy, N. Rahul

and P. Sridhar)