According to informed sources, the central military commission naxalites leader Devji chetan is the man behind the Chhattisgarh ambush. The CPI Maoist militia network, the backbone of the Naxalites, as well as their intelligence wing played a crucial role in the Darbha Valley ambush in Sukuma district of Chhattisgarh in which 28 politicians, including Salwa Judum founder Mahendra Karma, Chhattisgarh PCC president Nandkumar Patel and his son Dinesh were killed.
According to sources, the Red militia network was reportedly following the Congress’ parivartan yatra and the ambush was not planned in advance but just two to three days before the tour schedule was revealed to the media by the Congress leaders. The militia and the intelligence networks provided information about the movement of the 30-vehicle convoy of the Congress leaders, said sources.
The opportunity to eliminate their eternal target, Mahendra Karma, fell in the lap of the Maoists when he visited Sukuma district, where almost halfa-dozen companies of the Maoist military wing People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) are posted within a radius of 25 to 30 kilometres. Apparently, it took less than 48 hours for the Reds to mobilize their rank and file to the ambush point, sources said.
Sources revealed that the plan was hatched by Tipparti Tirupati alias Devji alias Chetan, one of the members of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CPI Maoists and the head of the DKSZC state military commission, and Malloujula Venugopala Rao alias Sonu, brother of slain Maoist Kishanji, who is also a primary member of the five-men DKSZC state military commission. Both the leaders hail from Karimnagar district of AP. Even intelligence inputs suggest that some top Maoist leaders, including Devji and Sonu, were present in the vicinity of the ambush point in Darbha Valley.
A senior officer involved in anti-Naxalite operations in Andhra Pradesh said that the ambush was a success because the security forces let their guard down in Sukuma district and failed to deploy road opening parties, which move ahead of VIP convoys to sanitise the area.
Questioning the logic behind allowing the VVIP convoy to pass through the district when everyone knew that the area is infested by the Reds, he said that the security forces should not have forgotten that the presence of Karma in the district would definitely lure the Maoists to make the most of the opportunity and that the presence of senior and veteran leaders would have been an additional temptation for the Maoists.
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