Hyderabad: The Cyberabad Police has apprehended Sanjoy Deepak Rao, a high-profile Maoist who is a Central Committee Member of CPI (Maoist). The arrest took place near Malaysian Township, Kukatpally, based on reliable information from the Intelligence department. During the arrest, the police seized a revolver with six live rounds, a laptop, Rs 47,250, and other items. Rao, originally from Thane (Maharashtra), was wanted by the police in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and NIA. The government of Maharashtra had declared a reward of Rs 25 lakh for information leading to his arrest. Rao will be interrogated about his involvement in unlawful activities, his area of operation, and his connections with activists in Telangana.
Rao completed his BTech (electrical) from the Regional Engineering College (now NIIT) in Jammu and Kashmir in 1983-84. He was influenced by his father, a Communist trade union leader, and became attracted to Left-wing extremist ideology. Some of Rao’s friends supported the separatist movement in Kashmir while he was studying in J&K. After returning from J&K, he worked with various CPI groups and eventually formed the CPI ML Naxalbari group with Konath Muralidharan (alias Ajith) in 1999. Rao was in charge of Maharashtra while Muralidharan was the all-India secretary. He was arrested by Sahadha Police in Nandurbar district in July 2000 but was released at the end of the year. In 2005, he was arrested by Mulkanoor Police in Karnataka and released in 2006.
Rao arrived in Hyderabad four days ago and was en route to Maad (Chhattisgarh) for a meeting when he was intercepted by the Cyberabad police based on specific inputs from the Intelligence department.
