The anti-terrorist squad of the Kerala police on Tuesday arrested a Maoist leader from a hospital in Thrissur district. Rajan Chittilappilly was under treatment at a hospital in Koorkkencherry while he was taken into custody.
Police said that Rajan was availing treatment at the hospital after he reportedly met with a bike accident when he was on the way back from his home in Ollur. He sustained injuries on his head and shoulders. Since his injuries are serious, police will question him at the hospital itself.
Rajan is a leader in the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of the banned outfit CPI (Maoist) and was on urban duty. As per reports, he was working underground for a decade and the police were in search of him. He was working with CPI (ML) (Naxalbari) movement along with known leaders like MN Ravunni and Murali Kannamballi.
The CPI (Maoist) merged with CPI (ML) in 2014. Police said that they would search for Rajan after every Maoist arrest in the state, but hadn’t been able to locate him. This was especially after the 2016 Nilambur encounter in which two Maoist leaders named Kuppi Devaraj and Ajitha were killed. Rajan was a close associate of Kuppi Devaraj, according to the police.
In the 2016 Nilambur encounter, the police had recovered a few visuals of Rajan taking part in a Maoist meeting inside the forest. He was found hoisting a red flag.
There are reports that Rajan had kept himself away from the Maoist movement for the last few months.
After the LDF government took charge in the state, there have been four encounters and eight Maoists have been killed by the Kerala police. There are allegations that many of the encounters were fake, with the government facing massive criticism over this. Four persons were also arrested in the last few years.