india

Updated: Feb 12, 2019 09:18 IST

A top Maoist leader B Sudhakar, who had been carrying a reward of Rs 1 crore on his head, is learnt to have surrendered before the Telangana police on Monday. His wife Madhavi alias Neelima, who is also a top-ranking Maoist leader, reportedly surrendered along with him.

Sudhakar (51), known by several aliases such as Satwaji, Ogu Buriyari, Sudhakaran and Kiran, hails from Sarangapur village of Nirmal district (erstwhile part of Adilabad district).

The Telangana police, however, refused to deny or confirm the surrender. “We shall let you know officially at an appropriate time,” a spokesperson in the office of Director General of Police said.

Sudhakar, who was one of the central committee and politburo members of the CPI (Maoist), used to control several districts of Jharkhand, including Palamu, Garhwa, Latehar, Lohardaga, Gumla and Simdega, collectively called Koyal Sankh Zone.

Madhavi was a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee and was an expert in computer operations looking after the accounts of the party.

The arrest of Sudhakar’s brother Narayana in Ranchi in August last and his interrogation had revealed that Sudhakar and Madhavi had allegedly siphoned off huge amounts of money collected by the Maoist party. During the period of demonetization in November-December 2016, the couple had allegedly exchanged lakhs of rupees of demonetized currency into new currency.

There were also allegations that Sudhakar and Madhavi had diverted huge amount of money into real estate business in Andhra and Telangana. “The couple had been negotiating with the Telangana police for safe surrender for quite some,” a police source said.