The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a supplementary chargesheet against Sake Kalavathi, Area Commander of the CPI (Maoist), in connection with the murder of former Araku Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Kidari Sarveswara Rao from Andhra Pradesh. An NIA spokesperson in New Delhi said that the agency filed the chargesheet against Kalavathi under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act before a Special NIA court in Hyderabad. The anti-terror probe agency official said that during the probe, it was revealed that Kalavathi had joined the banned outfit 20 years ago and was an Area Committee member of the organisation at the time of her arrest.
"She is the wife of Kakuri Peddanna, a State Zonal Committee member of CPI (Maoist) and she, along with her husband and other co-accused persons was part of a 40-member team which was camping in Dumbriguda 15 days prior to the incident of the murder. She was an armed cadre of CPI (Maoist), and used to carry INSAS Rifle and was instrumental in providing logistics support to the team that carried out the killing of Rao, the then MLA of Araku and Siveri Soma, ex-MLA of Araku," the official added.
The case was originally registered on September 23, 2018 at Visakhapatnam relating to the murder of Rao, Araku MLA and Soma, ex-MLA, by armed cadres of CPI (Maoist) at Livitiputtu village in Dumbriguda Mandal, Visakhapatnam, when they were visiting a village to attend a party programme. The NIA had re-registered the case on December 6, 2018. After investigation, the NIA had filed the chargesheet against nine accused persons.
Shortly after the incident, the police had said that the main accused in the killing was Aruna alias Venkataravi Chaitanya, a Special Zonal Committee Member (SZCM) of the CPI (Maoist). Aruna, who heads Nandapur Area Committee on Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB), is suspected to have led a group of 50-60 Maoists who allegedly crossed over to Andhra Pradesh from Odisha. Aruna, a native of Visakhapatnam district, is wife of Pratapreddy Ramachandra Reddy alias Chalapati, who heads AOB Special Zonal Committee Military Commission.