Woman Maoist Leader Savitri Surrenders Before Police

CPI (Maoist) Divisional Committee Member and the incharge of the South Bastar Division of the Dandakarnya Committee in Chattisgarh, Madavi Hademe alias Ravula Savitri (46), who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on her head, surrendered before the Telangana police on Wednesday.

Announcing her surrender at a press conference, Director General of Police M Mahender Reddy said that Savitri was the wife of Ravula Srinivas alias Ramanna, who was a Central Committee (CC) member and secretary of the Dandakarnya Special Zonal Committee of the banned CPI (Maoist). He had died due to a cardiac arrest in December 2019.

Savitri had participated in five brutal attacks on security forces and four ambushes, in addition to several other incidents, during her underground life, the DGP said. She had also recruited 300 to 350 members into the CPI (Maoist) by propagating the party's revolutionary ideology through her speeches in the tribal areas, and many of them were still continuing in the party at various levels, the DGP added.

She was frustrated with the "mindless violence and aimless protracted armed struggle of the CPI (Maoist)", the DGP said. After the death of her husband and the surrender of her son, she went into a depression and realised the futility of continuing in the outlawed Maoist outfit, he said.

She was attracted by the provisions of the comprehensive surrender and rehabilitation policies of the Telangana government, and had decided to leave the party to join the mainstream society and lead a normal life, Reddy claimed.

The DGP also appealed to the other Maoist cadres to shed their violent struggle and join the mainstream and take part in the advancement of the nation through constructive participation, and benefit from the comprehensive rehabilitation process of the Telangana government.