Senior leader with the banned CPI (Maoist) Ravula Srinivas with a combined bounty of Rs 1.37 crore on him is suspected to have died of a cardiac arrest. He is accused of masterminding several attacks with high death tolls among security personnel.
The Bastar range Inspector General of Police P Sunderraj told Asianage that Ramanna is believed to have died in a village located between Palmed and Basaguda in Bijapur, south Bastar. The police have however not confirmed the death as the body has not yet been recovered, however, the officer added there was evidence and inputs corroborating Ramannas death. A well attended funeral in Bastar is what has lead the police to believe that the Maoist leader is dead. However, there is also a theory that the funeral could have been a staged one, to district the forces as Ravula who is a diabetic patient seeks medical help.
55-year-old Ravula Srinivas also known as Ramanna was a member of the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) and is suspected to have died in the Chhattisgarh forests on December 7. For over three decades, he has been operating out of Bijapur in south Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
Ramanna hails from Bekkal village of Maddur mandal in Telangana’s Siddipet district, he was also the secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) a unit of the CPI (Maoist) and had joined the Central Committee in 2014.
He is accused of several attacks against security forces in Chhattisgarh. He is accused of masterminding the killings of 76 CRPF jawans at Chintalnar village of Dantewada district on April 6, 2010. He is also accused of having planned the attack on 16 security personnel at Jeerum Nullah in Sukma district on March 11, 2014, and for the attack on CRPF personnel at Burkapal in Sukma district in April 2017, reported The Hindustan Times.
His wife Sodi Idime also known as Savitri is secretary of Kistaram Area Committee in Bastar and an underground operative. Their son Srikanth alias Ranjit is also a member of the banned People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Battalion. It’s being reported that his wife and son were both attended the cremation.
The Maoist party is yet to make a statement confirming the death. Ramanna had a combined bounty of Rs 1.37 crore across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Maharastra.