Daijiworld Media Network - Hyderabad
Hyderabad, May 26: In a major setback to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), senior Maoist leader Pasunoori Narahari and his wife Medara Danamma surrendered before the Telangana Police on Tuesday.
Telangana Director General of Police C. V. Anand presented the couple before the media, describing the surrender as a significant blow to the Maoist organisation.
Narahari, also known by aliases Vishwanath and Salai Da, served as the secretary of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee (BJSAC), while Danamma, known by several aliases including Latha and Poonam, was a State Committee Member of the outfit.
The DGP said the surrender indicates that the last remaining Eastern Regional Bureau structure of the Maoist organisation is nearing collapse.
Originally from Hanumakonda district in Telangana, 64-year-old Narahari reportedly joined the Radical Students Union during his college days before formally entering the underground movement in the early 1980s under the influence of former CPI (ML) People’s War leader Puli Anjaiah.
Police said he later became part of the Kunta Dalam operating in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh and steadily rose through the organisation’s ranks over several decades.
He was promoted to State Committee Member in 2006 and later served in the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee, where he headed the organisation’s technical department responsible for manufacturing and maintaining weapons and explosives.
Investigators stated that Narahari possessed advanced expertise in producing firearms, rockets, mortars, grenades and booby traps, besides training Maoist cadres in weapon production and technical operations.
In 2017, he was elevated as a Central Committee Member under the Eastern Regional Bureau.
Danamma, 55, joined the Maoist movement after marrying Narahari in 1988. She worked in the outfit’s technical wing in Dandakaranya and later in Nagpur before being arrested in 2004.
After securing bail in 2011, she reportedly rejoined the organisation and later became a senior member of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Committee before being promoted as a State Committee Member in 2018.
The Telangana Police said Narahari and Danamma were handed rehabilitation rewards of Rs 25 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively through demand drafts under the state government’s surrender policy.
Officials added that the couple would also receive additional rehabilitation benefits, including healthcare support and reintegration assistance.
DGP C.V. Anand said the Telangana government, under the assurance of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, is processing health cards for all Maoist cadres who surrendered between 2024 and 2026.
According to police data, 822 Maoist cadres, including five Central Committee Members and 23 State Committee Members, have surrendered in Telangana since 2024.
The police chief stated that in 2026 alone, 264 underground Maoist cadres surrendered, while security forces recovered 238 firearms, significantly weakening the organisation’s armed capabilities.
He credited the Special Intelligence Branch, Telangana Greyhounds and district police units for intensifying anti-Maoist operations and pushing the insurgency towards what he described as its “last stage of survival.”
C.V. Anand also revealed that only three active underground cadres from Telangana remain within various Maoist formations outside the state, including senior Maoist leader Muppala Laxman Rao.
He appealed to the remaining cadres to abandon armed struggle and join the mainstream through the state’s rehabilitation programme.