Chennai, Feb 22: The elite Q-Branch police of Tamil Nadu has arrested a long-absconding member of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation, wanted by multiple states and intelligence agencies.

The accused, identified as Karthik alias Chinna Karthik, a native of the Theni district, has been involved in several cases.

According to sources within the Tamil Nadu Police, Karthik was apprehended from Chennai based on intelligence inputs from state and central agencies. He had been on the run since 2011, evading law enforcement after his involvement in numerous unlawful activities. Police records indicate that Karthik underwent arms training in the forests of Kerala, aiding efforts to strengthen the Maoist presence in the tri-junction region of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu (KKT).

He was also previously booked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kochi for his activities.

The CPI (Maoist), despite suffering significant setbacks due to arrests and police encounters, continues to maintain operations in the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the Maoists was formed in 2011, covering parts of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. It became the fourth major ‘Guerrilla Zone’ in India, alongside the North Telangana, Dandakaranya, and Andhra-Odisha border special zonal committees. The organisation gained momentum in 2014 following a merger with CPI-ML (Naxalbari), a splinter Maoist faction from Kerala. In the same year, the Maoists conducted a Political-Military Campaign (PMC), targeting 10 locations to mark the 10th anniversary of the party’s formation.

The first major setback for the Maoists in the Western Ghats came in May 2015 when senior leader Roopesh was arrested in Coimbatore. Later that year, central committee member Kuppu Devaraj, who was coordinating activities in the region, was killed in an encounter in Nilambur. In subsequent operations, several other high-ranking leaders and cadres were either arrested or killed.

In May 2015, Maoist central committee member Murali Kannamballi was arrested in Pune while four Maoists -- Manivasakam, Rema, Karthi, and Aravind -- were gunned down by police at Manjakkandi in Palakkad border, Kerala. Deepak, a Maoist leader from Dandakaranya allegedly involved in military training for cadres in the Western Ghats, was arrested from Coimbatore. In March 2019, Maoist leader C.P. Jaleel was killed in an encounter at a resort in Wayanad while in November 2020, another cadre, Velmurugan, was shot dead. In November 2023, Kavitha, a member of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), suffered severe injuries in a police encounter in Kannur and later succumbed to her wounds.

Several senior Maoist leaders -- including Rajan Chittilappilli, T.K. Rajeevan, Gautam alias Raghavendra, C.P. Usman, B.G. Krishnamurthy, and Sanjay Deepak Rao -- were subsequently arrested, significantly weakening the party’s operations in the Western Ghats. At its peak, the CPI (Maoist) maintained three armed squads (dalam) -- Kabani, Nadukani and Bhavani -- in the region.

Law enforcement agencies see Karthik’s arrest as yet another major blow to the Maoist movement in the area, further disrupting their activities in the Western ghat.

--IANS

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