T'gana: CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member arrested

In a major setback to CPI Maoist, the Telangana Police on Friday arrested Sanjoy Deepak Rao, Central Committee member of the banned organisation here. In 2014, the CPI ML Naxalbari was merged with CPI Maoist and Muralidharan and Sanjoy Deepak Rao were taken into the Central Committee CC as its members.

In a major setback to CPI (Maoist), the Telangana Police on Friday arrested Sanjoy Deepak Rao, Central Committee member of the banned organisation here. He was arrested Friday morning at Kukatpally in the city by Cyberabad Police following intelligence inputs, state DGP Anjani Kumar told reporters.

The Maharashtra government had announced Rs 25,00,000 reward for the informant leading to his apprehension, he said.

Sanjoy Deepak Rao, a native of Maharashtra, completed B Tech (electrical engineering) from REC (now NIT, Srinagar), he said.

The Telangana SIB (Special Intelligence Bureau) has been tracking him for a long time, a police release said.

He is wanted by the police of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and also NIA.

While he was studying B Tech at J&K, Sanjoy Deepak Rao and some of his friends had supported the separatist movement in Kashmir, the release said.

After returning from J & K, he worked initially in CPI ML CRC group and CPI ML Rawoof group. In 1999, he along with one Konath Muralidharan formed the CPI ML Naxalbari Group. In July, 2000, he was arrested in Maharashtra and released from jail at the end of 2000.

. In 2014, the CPI ML Naxalbari was merged with CPI (Maoist) and Muralidharan and Sanjoy Deepak Rao were taken into the Central Committee (CC) as its members. As a CC member, he worked in Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee and in the urban areas of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, it said. In 2019, he went to Maad, Chhattisgarh and attended Central Committee meeting in which top Maoist leaders, including Ganapathi, participated in the meeting. After the arrest of B G Krishnamurthy, Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee Secretary, in November 2021, Sanjoy Deepak Rao was elected as Secretary of Western Ghats Special Zonal committee. Since then, he has been working in tri Junction, Western Ghats, and organising CPI (Maoist) activities, it said.

A professor in a private university and a film editor, both Hydeabad based, were his college friends, it said.

He came to Hyderabad about four days ago and was proceeding to Maad, Chhattisgarh for attending a meeting before being intercepted. A revolver with six live rounds, laptop and other articles along with cash of Rs 47,250 were recovered from his possession and was being produced before a local court, the release said.

He will be taken to police custody and interrogated for eliciting his involvement in various unlawful activities, his area of operation and his links with the activists in ''front and mass organisations in Telangana,'' the release added.