Hyderabad, February 24 Top Maoist commander and the key "strategist" of the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit, Thippiri Tirupati, also known as Devuji, surrendered to the Telangana police on Tuesday, after spending over four decades in hiding, police said.
Devuji, a key member of the Central Committee of the proscribed organization and a member of the Polit Bureau of the Maoist party, along with another Central Committee member, Malla Raji Reddy, formally surrendered in the presence of state DGP B Shivadhar Reddy.
Besides Devuji and Raji Reddy, two other insurgents—Bade Chokka Rao @ Jagan and Nune Narasimha Reddy @ Ganganna—also laid down their arms, Reddy said.
The DGP said that Devuji was supposed to be elected as Secretary of the CPI (Maoist) in a Central Committee meeting of the party's Polit Bureau, which never took place.
Responding to the query, Devuji said he surrendered due to health issues and vowed to continue his political career within a "legal framework”.
"Due to health reasons, I have decided to give up my underground life and join the mainstream, not for my personal life. I have decided to work on people's problems within the legal framework. That means I will continue my political life. I will take the decades of the philosophy which I believed in, as guidance to work henceforth,” he said.
Devuji is a native of Korutla town, Jagtial district. His father, Venkata Narsaiah, was a farmer. He has an elder sister, Leela, and two younger brothers (Gangadhar, Venkat).
Devuji married Arike Jaini @ Srujana in January 1991. She was a party member in Perimeli Dalam when she married Devuji. She was promoted to the rank of Regional Committee Member (RCM) and died in 2020 in an "exchange of fire" in the Kasansur forest area of Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra.
After completing his early education in private and government schools, he moved to Korutla for his intermediate studies. There, he was drawn into the fold of radical activism and joined the Radical Students' Union (RSU).
He was the president of RSU Korutla Town and then Karimnagar district. He spent years studying revolutionary ideologies before formally joining CPI(ML) people's war.
His commitment was deeply influenced by Jagitial Jaitra Yatra and various grassroots agitations led by the CPI (ML) People's War Group.
He was elevated as the Central Committee Member in 2001, and was made in charge of CMC in 2016, the police had earlier said.