Communist Terror: CPI (Maoist)'s Samala Venkatesam gunned down

CPI (Maoist)'s Samala Venkatesam gunned down

The CPI (Maoist) suffered yet another major set back with the police gunning down its AP State Committee member Samala Venkatesam alias Sudarshan alias Satyam in an encounter in Anantapur district on Friday morning.

Satyam’s encounter is being perceived as a major success by the police as he was involved in several offences including the infamous Vempenta massacre and attempt on the life of IPS officer Mahesh Chandra Ladha.

With the encounter of Satyam, the strength of AP State Committee has come down to three from six within a period of four months.

Incidentally, the encounter took place on a day when Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy was touring the district.

According to Anantapur superintendent of police Stephen Ravindra, a greyhounds team ran into 15-member Naxalite group in the forests near Payakatta Cheruvu under Nallamada police limits around 6 am. Soon an exchange of fire ensued. One Naxalite died on the spot while others managed to flee. He was later identified as Satyam.

Two rifles, one pistol, ammunition, claymore mines and cooking utensils were recovered from the encounter spot. The Naxalites were apparently holding state committee meeting, the SP said while rubbishing the allegations of human rights activists that it was a fake encounter.

Meanwhile, police sources in Hyderabad said that Satyam was indeed a very "important and action oriented Maoist leader". He himself took part in the claymore mine attack on the then Prakasam SP Mahesh Chandra Ladha at Ongole on April 27, 2005.

He was directly involved in Vempenta massacre in which Maoists butchered eight persons on Feb 28, last year. In all, he was involved in over 100 cases in Nalgonda, Prakasam and Kurnool districts.

Satyam, a native of Kesamudram in Warangal district joined the movement in 1989 and went underground in 1993. For the next nine years he worked in Nalgonda district in various capacities before becoming district committee secretary in 2002. A year later, he was made secretary of Nallamala forest division before being elevated as state committee member in August 2005.

The first state committee member to fall to the police bullets was Matta Ravikumar on June 16. Within a month, the police dealt a major blow by eliminating state committee secretary Madhav in an encounter on July 23.

Besides, Nallamala platoon commander Suresh and Anantapur district committee member Boya Satyanarayana alias Dam Satti also died in police encounters.

According to police sources, Sambasivudu, Velagala Appa Rao alias Raghavulu and Ramachandra alias RC are the other three AP state committee members. In fact, Satyam was being tipped to become state committee secretary after Madhav’s encounter.