He came to surrender, fled instead: Top Maoist Prabhakar killed in Abujhmarh

Prabhakar, son of Ramchander, was a resident of Isorjiwada in Sadashiv Nagar in Telangana’s Kamareddy district and belonged to the Katika caste. He carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh. One of the seven Maoists killed in the anti-Naxal operation on the Maharashtra–Chhattisgarh border in Gadchiroli, he was a senior leader holding the rank of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee Member (DKSZCM).

He was in charge of the West Bastar Sub-Zonal Bureau (WSZB), a member of the Special Military Commission (SMC) and the Weapons and Manufacturing Committee (WMC), and was responsible for the North Gadchiroli division. At the time of the encounter, he was armed with an AK-47 rifle.

A senior officer explained that the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee is divided into four sub-divisions covering large parts of Chhattisgarh, parts of Gadchiroli and north Telangana. “Prabhakar was the in-charge of the West Bastar sub-division, under which Gadchiroli also fell. Effectively, he functioned as the top Maoist leader for Gadchiroli for the past ten years,” the officer said. Bhupati, considered the overall national-level head, was senior to him, while Prabhakar functioned as the state-level chief of the West Bastar sub-division.

Prabhakar was killed in the Abujhmarh operation carried out by the Gadchiroli police after a planned surrender in October 2025 failed to materialise. (Special Arrangement)

The officer said the remaining six Maoists killed were lower-ranking cadres. “Prabhakar was earlier expected to surrender along with Bhupati, but due to certain developments, the plan did not materialise. Prabhakar fled along with five to six cadres, the same group that was later involved in the encounter,” he said, adding that although there were last-minute indications of surrender talks, Prabhakar chose to escape.

A veteran who evaded encounters

Sources among surrendered cadres said Prabhakar was a well-known figure within the organisation for repeatedly evading arrest and encounters. A surrendered Naxal said a story about him was written in Telugu and later translated into Gondi and Hindi, and was widely read among cadres.

Padakala, a village in Kamareddy district, was the site of a 36-hour-long encounter from which Swamy escaped, earning him the name ‘Padakala Swamy’, which is recorded in Maoist history. The story narrates how he escaped an ambush, though the source could not recall whether this was the same incident in which he later hid for hours in a pit filled with cow dung to evade arrest.

In the Dandakaranya region, he adopted the name Prabhakar; his original name was Loketi Chandar. He was active in the Maoist movement for nearly 39 years, and sources recalled meeting his children during their time in the movement, noting that his family was associated with the CPI (Maoist).

Prabhakar began his political life in 1986 as a leader of the Radical Youth Organisation. His early political journey was rooted in struggles against landlords and feudal oppression. In 1991, he went underground and formally joined the party’s armed wing, having functioned legally until then.

He married at 16 to Sulochana and had three children. One daughter, who suffered from health issues since childhood, later passed away.

After going underground, he worked as a squad member, commander and area committee secretary in Kamareddy and Chinnapalli, building the movement both politically and organisationally. He played key roles in several armed actions, served as deputy commander and commander in major raids, and survived numerous encounters in Nizamabad and Kamareddy districts.

Overall, he is believed to have survived 30–40 encounters or ambushes. He was involved in attacks where weapons were seized from police forces, including an incident near the Indravati river at Rani Bodli, where police personnel were killed and around 40 weapons were seized.

Material recovered by security officials after the operation. (Special Arrangement)

In 2003, he moved from Telangana to Dandakaranya, serving as a District Committee member in South and West Bastar, including Gangloor. He later moved to Gadchiroli, where he led a company and focused on military operations.

Despite personal losses — his wife’s death, one child being arrested and jailed, and his son surrendering recently — he remained committed to armed struggle, sources said.

While Maoist presence in Gadchiroli has significantly reduced, security agencies are concerned about cadres from Chhattisgarh infiltrating the region. Of around 15 Maoists recently active in the area, seven were killed in the operation. Only about five cadres remain locally, while those who escaped belong to the Maad Division, expected to pose a continuing security challenge.

A senior officer said Prabhakar was highly proficient in handling sophisticated weapons such as the AK-47 and was an expert in IED technology. As a member of the Weapons and Manufacturing Committee, he played a key role in military strategy and logistics and served as a critical link in sustaining insurgent presence along the border corridors of Kanker, Narayanpur and Bijapur.

Prabhakar alias Loketi Chandar Rao was not merely a combatant but a veteran strategist. The Rs 25 lakh bounty on his head and his involvement in 73 armed confrontations underscored the threat he posed to national security and regional stability for over three decades.

An officer told The Indian Express that Prabhakar also broke the cordon and fled away during the encounter in Mardintola forest area of Gadchiroli on 13th November 2021, in which dreaded Maoist Milind Teltumbde was killed among 26 other Naxals.