Woman Maoist surrenders before Chennai court

CHENNAI: Woman Maoist Padma, who has been absconding for the last one year after coming out on bail, surrendered before a special court in Poonamallee here on Friday.
The special intelligence branch (SIB) of the Andhra Pradesh police arrested Padma near Chennimalai in Erode district in Tamil Nadu while she was travelling in a train from Kerala to Hyderabad on July 3, 2017. She was released on bail a few months later, but she went absconding.

After her surrender on Friday, the court remanded Padma in judicial custody. The court informed the internal security wing intelligence personnel about her surrender.

Padma alias Sathyamary, 43, is the wife CPI (Maoist) wing state secretary J Vivek alias Kumar, who was nabbed from Triplicane on May 19, 2012 when he came here to attend his relative’s engagement. Padma gave a slip and escaped when police team nabbed Vivek.

Earlier, Padma was arrested by the Madhikonpalayam police in 2002 for providing weapon training to a group of Maoists at Uthangarai in Krishnagiri district. She was then booked under various sections of the IPC and the POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act).

Padma, a native of PGSBH Colony at Gaddi Annaram in Hyderabad, had been evading arrest since 2010. Finally, she was nabbed in Erode.

She is part of the Maoist's women's empowerment wing.

Vivek, a diploma holder in technical engineering and an expert in arms, had shifted base to north India, sources said. Recently, he moved to Chennai in a bid to expand the Maoist base in southern Tamil Nadu, but his attempts was foiled by the Tamil Nadu police.

Vivek, who hails from Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, was providing arms training to Maoists in the forest areas of Periyakulam when they were surrounded in 2007, police said. In the encounter that followed, some suspected Maoists were killed, but Vivek managed to escape.