Team News Riveting
Raipur, July 14
Ravula Ranjit alias Srikanth, the member of Platoon Party Committee in the outlawed CPI-Maoist, surrendered before the Telangana police and spilled out the secret of simmering difference in the underground cadre.
The 23-year-old Maoist is son of dreaded Chhattisgarh Maoist leader late Ravula Srinivasa aka Ramanna. He surrendered before Telangana Director General of Police M Mahendra Reddy on Wednesday to join the mainstream of the society. The DGP said Ravula Ranjit was involved in four major attacks on security forces and one failed ambush between 2018 and 2021.
Ranjit was involved in the Kistaram attack in 2018 in Chhattisgarh in which nine security personnel were killed when Maoists blew up a mine-protected vehicle. Besides, he played an important role in the 2020 Minapa attack in which 23 security men and three rebels were killed. Police said he was involved in the Jiram attack in April, 2021, in which 20 security personnel and six Maoists were killed.
Born in Dandakaranya region of Chhattisgarh, Ranjith was exposed to the revolutionary ideology of waging war against the state since childhood that started under the shadow of guns. He went to CPI-Maoist’s Janatana Sarkar School till Class 6 in Puttapadu in Chhattisgarh before being sent to Nizamabad in Telangana under false identity where he studied till Class 10. He joined the Maoist armed forces in April 2015.
On the advice of his father, Srikanth joined the 2nd Platoon of 1st Company as Party Member in 2017. In November 2019, he was promoted as Platoon Party Committee member.
Bastar Inspector General of Police Sundarraj P said after the death of his father Ramanna in 2019, Ranjit was facing humiliation in the party. He had nursed his ailing father and wanted to shift him from the dense forests for better medical care that Maoist leadership turned down. Ramanna died of a massive heart attack.
“Even party refused to grant permission when Ranjit offered to quit and surrender before the police,” Sundarraj said, adding that after the death of his father, Ranjit was desperate to give up the arms as he found armed revolution futile.
He had reportedly informed the police during preliminary interrogation that five to six cadres were daily leaving the party.
