Kerala-based Maoist leader Rupesh has been arrested in a joint operation of the police forces of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Rupesh was reportedly arrested along with four other left extremists including his wife Shina and another Keralite, Anoop, from Karumattampatty in Coimbatore. The arrested Maoists also included two others — Easwar alias Praveen and Kannan — hailing from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, reports said.
“These arrests are a huge victory for the Kerala Police. The State police had received great help from the police forces of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in this operation. Those held are people who had headed several extremist operations in the villages and towns of Kerala,” Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told a TV channel.
The Kerala Police had been on a hunt for Rupesh and others in the jungles of the State’s northern districts since February, 2013. It was not certain whether the arrested left extremists would be brought to Kerala immediately. Rupesh and others were wanted in several cases in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The Maoists had carried out a minimum of ten operations in the villages and towns of Kerala — including exchange of fire with the police in Vellamunda, Wayanad — since November last. It is said that these actions were carried out by the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the CPI(Maoist) under the planning and supervision of Rupesh.
Hailing from Peringottukara in Kerala’s Thrissur district, Rupesh alias Praveen is a law graduate. He had started his extremism-leaning political career through the students’ movement of the CPI(Marxist-leninist). He is presently the secretary of the Kerala unit of the CPI(Maoist) and a Politbureau member of the outfit.
Shina, a former clerk in the Kerala High Court, was the woman commander of the left extremist outfit in Kerala. Rupesh had gone into hiding ten years ago and Shina had been in hiding for the past five years.