Raipur: A purported press release issued by the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), a formidable formation of Naxals, has dismissed the reports that general secretary of the banned CPI (Maoist) Devji alias Thippri Tirupati is currently in the police custody.
The press release dated November 27 was undersigned by one Vikalp who claimed him as the spokesman of the DKSZC.
The release which surfaced on Thursday described the reports on the arrest of Devji, successor of slain CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju, a canard being spread by a section of people and asserted that “Devji is in a safe hideout in the jungle”.
Maoists came out with the purported clarification on Devji for the first time since former Chhattisgarh MLA Manish Kunjam made the sensational claim a week ago that Devji got himself arrested by the police to save his life after he had conspired the killing of Hidma Madvi, chief of the military commission of the Naxals, at the hands of police on November 28 in a forest in Andhra Pradesh.
Hidma’s killing had shattered the backbone of Maoist movement particularly in Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
The DKZSC spokesman however claimed that a senior Naxal leader who accompanied Hidma during the latter’s visit to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh for medical treatment early in November this year had tipped off police about him before surrendering.
Hidma was tipped off about it on November 27 through the Maoist channel and fled to the jungles in Andhra Pradesh seeking safe hideout, the release said.
A day later, he along with six other Maoists including his wife was spotted moving in a forest in Andhra Pradesh.
They were killed in the encounter.
