Armed Maoists gun down former militant

Visakhapatnam: A former militia member of Maoists, suspected to be police informer, was gunned down by armed Maoists of Galikonda Area Committee at Chukka Goyya village in GK Veedhimandal in the Visakhapatnam Agency in the late night hours of Friday. The deceased was identified as Vanthala Jayaram (26) alias Sailu alias Balayya, a native of Chukka Goyya village and a farmer by profession. Jayaram had joined in the Maoist party in 2013 as a militia member and surrendered before police after working over six months in the party.

The gunning down of the former militant has triggered panic among the locals, as it took place hours before the commencement of Martyrs’ Week being observed by the Maoists. Every year, the Maoists will observe Martyrs’ week from July 28 to August 3. The police and armed forces have been alerted in the dense forest in view of the Martyrs’ Week celebrations. However, the Maoists killed Vanthala Jayaram. According to the sources, a group of armed Maoists dragged Jayaram out of his house at around 11 pm last night. After two hours of discussions, the Maoists shot him dead on the outskirts of the village. Though Jayaram’s wife VLatha pleaded the Maoists to release her husband, they have ignored her request.

GK Veedhi sub-inspector BChandrasekhar said that they have advised Jayaram and a few others to move to safer places ahead of Martyrs’ Week, but he ignored the police suggestions. Though Jayaram was surrendered, he was not a police informer. The Maoists branded him as a police informer and killed him, the SI said.

Meanwhile, the Maoists claimed that Jayaram was behind the death of Maoist leader Gemmeli Narayan Rao alias Jambri, who died in an exchange of fire (EOF) near Annavaram in the Agency in February 2017. The Maoists alleged that Jayaram had given some key information to the police which helped the police to arrest some Maoists in the region. After the post-mortem, the police handed over the body to Jayaram’s relatives.