Bhubaneswar: Stepped up drive by security forces in the Maoist stronghold of Malkangiri has paid dividends as a woman rebel with bounty on her head surrendered before the district police on Thursday.
Malkangiri police superintendent Jagmohan Meena said that K. Lakshmi alias Sweta alias Kumari, who hails from Arabeti village in Kalimela police station area, carried a reward of Rs 4 lakh reward on her head.
She has been working as an area committee member of Malkangiri-Koraput-Vishaka border division of the CPI-Maoist's Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee since 2008. Lakshmi is the wife of Maoist leader Dhananjay Gope alias Sudheer who is an area committee member of Gumma area in Malkamgiri. She reportedly told the police that her husband was also willing to surrender.
Lakshmi, who is the third woman Maoist to give up arms in the district in the past one year, will receive monetary assistance from the state in keeping with the provisions of its rehabilitation scheme for the rebels. She is likely to get assistance for building a house and pursuing studies, apart from getting vocational training in an institution of her choice.
Meena said Lakshmi was involved in several incidents of violence, including the Damanjodi attack on April 12, 2009, and exchange of fire with security forces at Daudaput and Jamajodi in 2014. She is also an accused in the killing of two civilians at Silakota village on January 25, 2014. Lakshmi was also a part of the Maoist group that set afire an excavator and an earthmover at Pipalpadar and Mudulipada villages in December last.
In February last year, two women Maoists carrying cash rewards of Rs 4 lakh each on them had surrendered in Malkangiri district. The duo - Sumitra Madvi and Jagi Madkami - had joined the Maoist organisation in 2001. Sumitra, the senior of the two, had taken part in the attack on a bauxite mine owned by Nalco in 2008.
"We know that many cadres are disillusioned with the Maoist ideology of violence and want to come back to mainstream life. We are carrying out awareness drives asking the rebels to return to the social mainstream," said Meena.
