A sexagenarian Maoist couple - K Purushottam alias Vijay alias Sharath Chandra, 68, and his wife K Vinodini alias Vijayalaxmi, 63 - surrendered this afternoon.
A sexagenarian Maoist couple - K Purushottam alias Vijay alias Sharath Chandra, 68, and his wife K Vinodini alias Vijayalaxmi, 63 - surrendered before the Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar this afternoon.
Addressing the media, the Commissioner said that the two Naxalites were residents of Secunderabad and working with the CPI (Maoist)'s Agitation Propaganda Committee (APC). Purushottam had joined the Naxalites in 1981 at the age of 31. He completed his Bachelor of Oriental Language (BOL) in Andhra Saraswatha Parishad, Osmania University, in 1974, and his MA (History) in 1987 in the open university.
He was working as the headmaster of Ambedkar Vidaniketan Upper Primary School at Addagutta, East Marredpally, Secunderabad, in 1981, and had come into contact with late Mojulla Koteshwar Rao alias Kishan G alias K G Satyamurthi. After his marriage with Vinodini in 1982, Purushottam worked as a city committee member of Hyderabad, and was soon promoted as the city committee secretary. During this period, between 1981 and 1986, the couple recruited some 60 persons into the party and sent them to the forests for training.
Vinodini, a resident of Addagutta, Secunderabad, had worked as a teacher in private schools in Addagutta, and joined the extremist party at the age of 27 after marrying Purushottam. She worked as a teacher in a private school in Krishna Nagar in Jubilee Hills as a cover job till 1986. Later the couple were transferred to Visakhapatnam, and there she worked as a teacher in a private school at Akkipalem from 1987 to 1991 as a cover job while assisting in cadre recruitment. Vijay served as City Committee Secretary in Visakhapatnam from 1986 to 1996.
The couple were arrested in March 1991 in Visakhapatnam along with late Nimmaluri Bhaskar Rao, SCM. and Sammi Reddy, DCM. They were released in May 1991 as part of a swap after the kidnap of Punjala Sudheer Kumar, Youth Congress secretary, son of former union minister P Shiv Shankar. From 1997 to 2000, they handled the Agitation Propaganda Committee printing "Kranthi" and other political documents of the party.
From 1996 to 2005, Purushottam worked in the Sub-Committee On Political Education (SCOPE). From 2005 to 2014, the party directed the couple to stay in Chennai and they were not given any responsibility. The couple shifted to Hyderabad in 2014 and were staying here without exposure. By then, Vinodini started suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and diabeties, and, from last year, from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML).
Attracted by the surrender policy of the state government, Purushottam surrendered citing his wife's ill-health and a desire to join the mainstream and lead a peaceful life.
Purushottam said that selfishness had increased among the present leadership of the Maoist party, and that he had opted to surrender along with his wife as the Maoist leadership was neglecting them. He said that they were deceived by the party though Vinodini was suffering from severe ill health.
Purushottam added that it was wrong for the Maoists to kill public representatives. He also claimed that he had participated in the 1969 and 1972 Telangana movements.