2 top Maoist leaders carrying ₹3.5-crore reward surrender

Two top Maoist leaders, including a key strategist, surrendered before the Telangana police on Sunday, in a major blow to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), officials familiar with the development said.

- SrinivasaRaoApparasu

They said party general secretary Thippiri Tirupati alias Devji, 60 and central committee-cum-politburo member Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram, 76, along with 16 other members of the party surrendered before the special intelligence bureau (SIB) of the Telangana police in Komaram-Bheem Asifabad district in the early hours of Sunday.

“An official announcement will be made ina day or two only after the formalisation of the surrender process and the Maoist leaders are likely to be produced before the media in the presence of director general of police B Shivadhar Reddy or chief minister A Revanth Reddy,” the official said.

Over the last one year, there has been a record number of surrenders; 2,793 cadres surrendered across the country (1,590 in Bastar alone) as the government launched a massive crackdown to eliminate left wing extremism from the country. To put this in context, there were 1,040 surrenders in 2025, 881 in 2024, 376 in 2023 and 496 in 2022.