A revolver with 6 live rounds, a laptop, and other articles along with cash worth ₹47,250 were recovered from him.
Sanjoy Rao. (Supplied)
The Intelligence Bureau and Cyberabad Police in Telangana apprehended a wanted Maoist, Sanjoy Deepak Rao, a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist), near Malaysian Township in Kukatpally in Hyderabad on Friday, 15 September.
He is the secretary of the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the South Regional Bureau of the CPI (Maoist). A revolver with six live rounds, a laptop, and other articles along with ₹47,250 in cash were recovered from his possession.
Addressing the media, Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Anjani Kumar said that Rao visited Hyderabad twice, and he was arrested this time following the information collected by the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) which was tracking him for a long time.
According to the DGP, Rao met Ranjith Shankaran, a professor at the Mahendra Tech University and a resident of the Malaysian township, and film editor B Ajith Kumar who is a resident of Madhapur as they were his friends from college.
“The duo will not be taken into custody but will be called for interrogation. The subject used to visit his friends’ houses in Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad, taking utmost precautions while moving on party work,” the DGP said.
He came to Hyderabad about four days back and was proceeding to Maad in Chhattisgarh to attend a meeting.
Acting upon the information given by the SIB, the Cyberabad police arrested Rao from Kukatpally on Friday.
“He will be taken to police custody and interrogated for eliciting his involvement in various unlawful activities, his area of operation, and his links with the activists in front and mass organisations in Telangana,” added the DGP.
Rao is wanted by the police of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The government of Maharashtra had declared a ₹25 lakh reward for information leading to his apprehension, he added.
“This arrest will be a serious blow to the proscribed Maoist terrorist organisation since a Central Committee member is with us and the whole plan of policymaking, and planning of vulnerable spots will be known by Telangana Police within a short time,” Anjani Kumar told South First.
“There has been no fresh recruitment of Maoists for the last eight to nine years and with this arrest, the other state police will be getting the links for further investigation,” he added.
According to the SIB, Sanjoy Deepak Rao is a native of Shivagandha Nagar of Thane district in Maharashtra. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Regional Engineering College (now NIIT) in Jammu and Kashmir.
He was attracted to extreme left-wing ideology having been influenced by his father who was a communist trade union leader. During his graduation days, he and some of his friends supported the separatist movement of the Kashmir people.
After returning from J&K, he initially worked in the Central Reorganisation Committee (CRC) of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist Leninist (ML) Rawoof group.
In 1999, he joined Konath Muralidharan, known as Ajith, Ex-CCM, and formed CPI-ML Naxalbari Group. He was made in charge of the Maharashtra CPI-ML Naxalbari Group and Muralidharan was the India secretary.
In July 2000 he was arrested by Sahadha Police of Nandurbar district and cases were registered in Dadgan and Masavana police stations of Maharashtra.
He was released from jail at the end of 2000. In 2002, he went underground and transferred to the Raidurg area of Ananthapur district to start CPI-ML Naxalbari activities. While working in Ananthapur district of Karnataka in 2005, Malkanoor police arrested him. He was released from jail by the end of 2006.
In 2007, he was sent to Kolar mines to organise CPI-ML Naxalbari activities, but he couldn’t get any success there. In 2007, he married Sarswavthi a native of Ananthapur, who is also a CPI (Maoist) cadre.
In 2009, the CPI-ML Naxalbari group sent a letter to the CPI (Maoists), expressing their willingness to merge their party with the CPI (Maoist).
On this, the CPI (Maoists) invited them to Maad in Chhattisgarh to discuss on merger issue. Rao and Muralidharan went to Maad and held discussions on merger issues.
In 2014, K Muralidharan went again to Maad and CPI-ML Naxalbari was merged into the CPI (Maoist). Muralidharan and Rao inducted into the Central Committee. He worked in the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee and in the urban areas of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.
In 2019, Rao went to Maad to attend a Central Committee meeting in which CPI (Maoist) general secretary Baswaraj, CCMs Ganapathi, Ganesh, etc, participated.
In this meeting, the South West Regional Bureau (SWRB) was disbanded and a new South Regional Bureau (SRB) was formed with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
It was also decided in that meeting, to transfer Paka Hanumathu alias Uike Ganesh alias Dhiraj a CCM along with 15 other cadres with arms and ammunition.
But due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other reasons this transfer of cadres has not materialised so far. After the arrest of BG Krishnamurthy, the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee secretary, in November 2021, Rao was chosen as his successor.
Since then he has been working in Tri Junction in the western ghats and organising CPI (Maoist) activities.
In January 2023, he had some health issues and left the western ghats for an urban area to get treatment. In March, he recovered and he has been planning to go to Maad to attend a meeting and to meet Baswaraj.
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