Chikkamagaluru: 4 suspected Maoists surrender; 2 arrested, 2 let off

Chikkamagaluru, Nov 15: Four suspected Maoists surrendered before the Chikkamagaluru district administration on Monday.

While two of them were arrested and sent to judicial custody, the two others were let off. Nilguli Padmanabh and his wife Bharathi and Parashuram and his wife Rizwana Begum are the suspected Maoists who appeared before the district administration, following mediation by journalist Gauri Lankesh who is also a member of State Committee for Resettlement of Leftist Maoists.

Padmanabh (45) of Koppa taluk in the district is suspected to be active in Maoist activities for the past 14 years. There are 19 cases against him in various police stations in Chikkamagaluru, Udupi and Shivamogga districts.

He has been booked for murder, attempt to murder, possession of illegal weapons, smuggling of explosives, among others.

Rizwana (33) alias Kalpana alias Nirmala of Raichur district is said to be involved in the Maoist movement since 1999 and there are two cases against her in Chikkamagaluru and Raichur. The Sringeri police took Padmanabh and Rizwana into their custody and produced them before the magistrate in Koppa.?

Parashurama and?Bharathi who did not have any criminal antecedents were let off. Bharathi is a native of Bangarpet in Kolar district and is suspected to have been participating in Maoist activities since 2002 at?Raichur, Chikkamagaluru, Udupi, Shivamogga and?Dakshina Kannada district. Raju alias Parashuram (40) is a native of Kalaburagi. He was an active member of Chandra Banda Dalam of the erstwhile People's War Group and an accomplice of dreaded naxal Ramesh alias Vijaykumar, who is in judicial custody.

The four, along with Gauri Lankesh arrived at the travellers bungalow here around 2 pm in a sports utility vehicle. They were produced before another member of the State Committee for Resettlement of Leftist Maoists and advocate A?K?Subbaiah.

Advocate?Sripal and Superintendent of Police?K?Annamalai were present. They were later produced before the District Committee for Resettlement of Maoists headed by Deputy Commissioner G?Satyavathi. Later, they told reporters that false cases have been foisted against them and they had not indulged in armed struggle. They said they decided to surrender before authorities to lead a dignified life, without being influenced by the rehabilitation package offered by the government. “We have been involved in different professions to eke out a living and will continue to fight for people's cause in a democratic set up,” they added.

Padmanabh said, “As a member of Karnataka Vimochana Ranga, I participated in the struggle against mining at Kudremukh, Save Tunga river movement among others. During one such movement in 2004, Maoist top gun Saketh Rajan (who was later killed in an encounter in 2005) had asked me to come to Barkana for talks. The police had then opened fire and I sustained bullet injuries in my leg.?After that I went underground. When fellow activists Sirimane Nagaraj and Noor Zulfiker returned to the social mainstream, we too decided to follow them.”