In a major setback to the outlawed CPI (Maoist), one of its senior most leaders has surrendered to the police, sources said.
While it was speculated that Gajarla Ashok alias Janardhan was arrested by the police, sources said that he had in fact surrendered and will be later produced before the media.
Following the reports of his arrest, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao had demanded that he should be produced in the court.
Gajarla Ashok was the secretary of Dandakaraniya Committee of the CPI (Maoist) and carried a reward of Rs20 lakh over his head. Sources said that he decided to surrender because of his ill health. Ashok hails from Velishala village under Chityala mandal of Warangal district.
Ashok is brother of another senior Maoist leader Ganesh who had participated in peace talks with Andhra Pradesh Government in 2005. Ganesh later died in an encounter with police in 2009.
For the CPI Maoist the latest setback came even as the organisation was trying desperately to regroup itself in Telangana and resume its activities.
In another incident, police and the Maoists exchanged fire in Pembi forest of Khanapur in Adilabad district this morning. Police found blood stains at the scene of the encounter but the Maoists managed to flee. Police believe that at least two Maoists died in the incident but their bodies were taken away by the fleeing Maoists.