In a curious development, the Maoist party is said to have ordered six of its central committee members to stay away from a top-level meeting that was convened on the borders of Orissa and Jharkhand in February.
The central committee meeting, called to take stock of the revolutionary movement in the country, was attended by the other 18 members. Among the six leaders ordered not to attend were Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna, Varanasi Subrahmanyam, Pulendu Sekhar Mukherji, Misir Besra, Malla Raji Reddy and another unidentified person, intelligence agencies say.
The Maoist leadership suspected that these six were under intense surveillance from intelligence agencies, and that their attending the meeting could jeopardise the security of the other central committee members.
“These six leaders were ordered not to come out of their jungle hideouts,” a top police officer told The Hindu .
Incidentally, Varanasi Subrahmanyam, Pulendu Sekhar Mukherji and Vijay Kumar Arya, all central committee members, were arrested in Bihar on April 29. Further, there were reports that the security forces had almost surrounded a forested area in Orissa recently where Akkiraju Haragopal was believed to be camping.
‘Investigation Commission'
While Misir Besra was freed from police custody in a daring naxalite raid, Malla Raji Reddy jumped bail and rejoined his party.
Worried over the ability of security forces to arrest or kill its top leaders, the Maoist party constituted an ‘Investigation Commission' with two central committee members, Kobad Ghandy and Patel Sudhakar Reddy, to zero in on the reasons for the arrests and killings.
The commission could not complete its work as Reddy was killed in an alleged exchange of fire in Warangal on May 24, 2009, while Ghandy was arrested in September 2009.
Sources said the central committee meeting had decided to bestow more attention to building the revolutionary movement in urban areas, where it has been unable to spread rebel activity despite a conducive political atmosphere.
