There are more than 275 underground cadre of Maoists actively involved in several states out of which 75 are in Andhra Pradesh (AP). The DGP of the state, Prasad Rao appealed to these cadres to surrender and avail the government rehabilitation package.
AP police will be giving Rs 20 lakhs to key CPI (Maoist) leader and spokesperson of Dandakaryana Special Zonal Committee, Gumudavelli Venkatakrishna Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi who surrendered two days back along with his wife.
After 28 years of being actively involved in naxal activites Gudsa came out of the underground. "I have surrendered due to health problems and some ideological issues with the party,” he told media after he was produced in front of journalists today in DGP office in Hyderabad.
To a question he said the party never allows anyone to surrender but he informed them about his decision. "I have approached police through my relatives," Gudsa said. He refused to give any more details about the infighting in maoists cadre. "You can think whatever you want," he told the media persons when asked about naxalites falling flat.
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DGP while producing Gudsa Usendi in front of media said that other under ground cadres should come ahead and surrender in the lines of Usendi and avail the government facilities. DGP further said that Usendi was among the seven People’s War Group (PWG) Naxalites who were arrested and released after the famous Gurtedu kidnap incident in late 80s. The Gurtedu incident had even attracted the attention of the international media because the red rebels had kidnapped seven IAS officers, including the then principal secretary of Andhra Pradesh SR Sankaran. The incident took place in the forest tracts of East Godavari on December 27, 1987, when a group of around 25 government officials were returning in a convoy of five vehicles after participating in a review programme held in the forest area.
Usendi left his home in Warangal after graduation when he was 20 years old and joined the PWG. He went underground and spent the last three decades in the forests of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, and is well-known for his ingenious methods of delivering messages to media and political leaders: emails from ghost IP addresses, notes stuck on doors and propaganda CDs in MLAs chambers apart from many more.
Usendi worked for around three decades in Chhattisgarh, and chose to surrender before the Andhra Pradesh Police which offers better incentives and rehabilitation policy to insurgents who surrender. It also gives them the cash reward on their heads. Usendi had a reward of Rs 20 lakh for information leading to his arrest. Usendi was also allegedly involved in the killing of 29 policemen, including SP Vinod Kumar Choubey, in an ambush in Rajnandgaon in 2009.
As Dandakaranya spokesman, Usendi's last major statement was days after the killing of top Congress leaders, attributing the attack to the Dandakaranya committee, the most powerful zonal wing of the Maoists.
His strongly-worded statement had congratulated the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army for the successful attack, and justified the killing of Mahendra Karma, Nand Kumar Patel and V C Shukla, while regretting the killing of innocent people and some junior level Congress activists.