Man dubbed major link between top Maoist leadership and their ‘urban network’ held in Chhattisgarh

Prabhakar, who is also known as Balmuri Narayan Rao, joined the Maoists as a teenager in 1984 and has been active for the last four decades. He is a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) of the Maoists, police said, adding that he was posted in Bastar for over 20 years.

A senior police officer said, “We had received information about his movement in Antagarh police station limits in Kanker after which we conducted a Nakabandi and caught him.”

Police refused to divulge more information about how he was apprehended, but said that he is suspected of having been travelling in and out of Bastar.

Born in Birpur village in Jagtial district of what is now the state of Telangana, Rao joined the Maoist-linked Radical Students Union as a 16-year-old in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

He has headed the Maoists’ north sub-zonal bureau’s logistics supply, and was in charge of the Mobile Political School (MOPOS) team that was tasked with teaching new recruits the Maoist ideology.

“Naxals run Jantana Sarkar schools to brainwash and indoctrinate children, and after getting recruited, they are put through MOPOS, where they have to read and write for two hours. They are given lectures on current affairs as well as anti-government protests in India and other countries,” said a senior official.

Rao has over a dozen cases registered against him in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and carries a bounty of Rs 25 lakh. However, according to police, he has not been part of any major military operations that have led to the deaths of security personnel.

Police said that Rao has closely assisted Maoist leaders in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh with the management of logistics.

Apart from his relative, Ganapathy, Rao is said to have been in touch with three Maoist politburo members, with a bounty of Rs 1 crore, who are hiding in Abujhmad – CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao, 70, alias Basva Raju, Thippiri Tirupathi, 61, alias Devji alias Kuma Dada, and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, 69, alias Sonu.

He was also said to have been in touch with DKSZC secretary Katta Ramchandra Reddy, 62, alias Raju Dada, who has a bounty of Rs 40 lakh.

Rao’s wife, Raje Kange, is also a wanted Maoist, and is a divisional committee member in charge of the rebels’ Raoghat Area Committee, police said.

After joining the Maoists in 1984, Rao remained active in undivided Andhra Pradesh until 1994, when Naxalism was at its peak.

From 1995 to 1997, he was active in Balaghat, in undivided Madhya Pradesh. From 1998 to 2005, he was active in Koylibeda in the north Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

Rising through the ranks, he became a DKSZC member in 2005, where he started handling logistics and assisting in maintaining the group’s urban network, police said.