Six armed naxalites of the CPI(ML)-New Democracy were arrested by the police, and five firearms, ammunition, bank account passbook and revolutionary literature were seized from them.
Superintendent of Police N Koti Reddy said a self-loading rifle (SLR), a Springfield rifle, a, 8 MM rifle, a .303 single shot rifle, and one 9MM pistol were recovered along with 53 live rounds of ammunition.
The arrested naxals were identified as Kothaguda area dalam commander J Sammaiah alias Jampanna, Gangaram dalam area commander S Papa Rao alias Pradeep, dalam members G Kranthi Kumar alias KK, B Vinod alias Samba Rao, N Ashok alias Veeraswamy, and M Karnakar.
Jampanna was carrying Springfield rifle while Pradeep was carrying an SLR.
The SP said on a tipoff about the movements of New Democracy Suryam dalam that camped at Lakshmipuram of Kothaguda mandal to extort money from local contractors, Gudur circle inspector B Ramesh and Kothaguda sub-inspector A Sathish were instructed to comb the area.
A team of 20 police personnel led by CI Ramesh conducted search operations on Thursday night.
While the team was returning in the early hours of Friday, they came across the New Democracy (Pedda Chandra Group) Mahabubabad secretary Suryam accompanied by Sammaiah and Pradeep.
The police team surrounded them and warned them to surrender. Suryam alias Soma Bhaskar and a dalam member S Madhu escaped while the police managed to arrest the remaining six naxals along with their kit bags.
The New Democracy armed squads are operating in Pakhal, Kothaguda, Gudur and Gangaram areas and extorting money from local contractors and traders.
Several criminal cases were booked against them along with cases under AP Forests Act 1963 and Wild Life (Protection) Act at Kothaguda police station.
Mr Koti Reddy wanted absconding naxals Suryam and Madhu to give up, or face severe consequences. The government would not tolerate extortions and those moving with weapons, terrifying people, he said.
