DANTEWADA: A reward-carrying naxal involved in at least 9 cases pertaining to murder and arson of security personnel in CGs insurgency-hit Dantewada surrendered said an official on Tuesday.
Raju Lekam 35 was an active head of the Janatana Sarkar unit of Maoists in the Bhairamgarh area in the neighboring Bijapur district. He cited the Lone Varattu program as a reason for his surrender. Disappointed by the hollow Maoist ideology he turned to the normal culture.
According to the details received by the officials in the know, he was involved in the outlawed outfit for more than a decade and was a part of at least 9 incidents including killing police personnel, damaging infrastructure, uprooting railway tracks, and many more. He was wanted in the murder of four people whom the naxals had killed accusing them of being police informers between 2013 and 2020 in South Bastar.
So far, 592 Maoists, including 150 carrying rewards on their heads, have surrendered in the district under the police’s ‘Lon Varratu’ (return to your home/village) campaign launched in June 2020. The cadres are being given financial assistance and trained in different disciplines for their reahabilitation under the campaign.