Senior Maoists quit after 4 decades: Couple with Rs 20L bounty surrenders before Rachakonda police; man was key associate of Gaddar

HYDERABAD: A couple who spent four decades as Maoists, and carried a reward of 20 lakh each, surrendered before the Rachakonda police on Thursday.Both were state committee members of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) in Chhattisgarh.

Mala Sanjeev, also known as Lengu Dada, hails from Yapral in Medchal-Malkajgiri district.

He was a state committee member (SCM) and a member of Chaitanya Natya Manch (CNM) secretariat in DKSZC. His wife, Perugula Parvathi, also known as Deen, was an SCM and a member of CNM's cultural sub-committee.

Announcing the surrender, Rachakonda commissioner of police Sudheer Babu said that Sanjeev was a key associate of the late Gaddar. "In 1980, Sanjeev joined the Jana Natya Mandali (JNM) of the Communist Party of India (ML) People's War under Gaddar's leadership and worked for it until 1986. He collaborated with members such as Dappu Ramesh, Daya, Vidya and Divakar to conduct various cultural programmes across 16 states in the country, spreading the ideology of the CPI (ML) People's War." In 1982, Sanjeev married Panjala Saroj, who died in a shootout in Alipur, Mulugu district.

In 1996, he joined the armed wing of the People's War Group, working as a divisional committee member."He later worked in Eturunagaram, Pandava and Mahadevpur dalams. In 2001, he was promoted to state committee member and worked under the North Telangana Special Zonal Committee. In 2003, he was transferred to the Dandakaranya committee, where he was in-charge of CNM. It was there that he married Perugula Parvathi and they both became involved in cultural programmes," said Sudheer.