A senior State committee member of the banned CPI (Maoist) from Chikmagaluru district in Karnataka gave herself up at Tirupattur on Sunday following repeated appeals by her family and relatives.
DIG (Vellore Range) A.G. Babu told journalists that Prabha, alias Chandira, surrendered after her husband B.G. Krishnamurthy, who was in charge of the Special Zonal Committee for the Western Ghats region and the Karnataka State unit of the CPI (Maoist), was arrested by the Kerala police on November 9. She was produced before the media.
The police alleged the Maoists used Prabha for collection of money and rice through coercion. She joined the mainstream, aided by community policing and the outreach by the local police and the ‘Q’ Branch police in the remote villages of the district.
Mr. Babu said Ms. Prabha went underground in 2006. Since then, she had worked in the Western Ghats region and the Karnataka State unit. The Karnataka police had announced a reward of ₹5 lakh for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of her and her husband.
She also went by the names Nethira, Vindu and Madhu, and has 44 cases against her in Udupi and Chikmangaluru. Krishnamurthy has 25 cases against him in Karnataka. Mr. Babu appealed to all members of the banned organisation to contact any of their relatives or the police to surrender.
