Former woman Maoist surrenders

NAGPUR: Former Maoist cadre Pedram Padma alias Savitri, who fled during encounter at Kalled forest near in Sironcha taluka of Gadchiroli district on December 6, surrendered before the police on Thursday.
She surrendered before the Nirmal police of Telangana.

Padma, who was roped in to the movement while working as a construction labourer, managed to sneak away from the place where seven of her colleagues were gunned down. Another male colleague of Padma was shot dead in another encounter within a week of Kalled fire exchange. The death of the male cadre, still unidentified, had taken the toll to eight.

Padma, who had surrendered before Nirmal district SP Vishnu S Warrier, claimed that there were 14 of them at Kalled when the encounter with Gadchiroli police's C-60 commandos started. She said eight others who had fled along with her included one Swarupa.

The Maoists had called for bandh in Aheri and Sironcha talukas on December 20 to protest encounter killing of their cadres. The rebels had also questioned the police regarding Swarupa demanding to produce her before the court in case she was in their custody. They claimed that an injured Swarupa was taken into custody after the encounter.

DIG of Naxal range Ankush Shinde said the Gadchiroli police are now in the process of co-ordinating with their Telanaga counterparts to bring Padma for interrogation. "It is unlikely that she will help us in identifying bodies as names of the cadres and their antecedents are generally with the seniors. However, we will try to gather information from her," he said.