61 Maoists, including top leaders, lay down arms in Maharashtra

15 OCTOBER 2025

In a blow to the Maoist movement in Maharashtra, 61 Maoists, including the prominent central committee member of the CPI (Maoist) Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias, Bhupati, surrendered before the Maharashtra Police at Fodewada village in Bhamragad.
The 70-year-old Bhupati is known to be one of the brains behind the extremist movement.
The Maoists handed over 54 weapons, including seven AK47s, six SLRs and six INSAS rifles.
Bhupati’s surrender comes months after his wife Tarakka, alias Vimala Sidam, also a Maoist leader, turned herself in. His sister-in-law had also surrendered.
A senior official said that with Bhupati’s surrender, “the core family of the Naxal movement” has ended and that it is a “major step in the elimination” of the insurgency. “It has happened after four to five months of consistent efforts by the Maharashtra Police,” the official said, adding that there was “stiff competition between police forces of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Telangana to secure the surrender of the most-dreaded Naxal leader.”