Central Committee Member Sitaram Arrested in Kashi

Varanasi | Desk: The Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested Sitaram alias Vinay Ji, a top Central Committee member of the banned CPI (Maoist) organization, from the Kashi railway station in Varanasi. The arrest was made based on a tip-off.

Sitaram, a native of undivided Andhra Pradesh, left his home in 1986 and joined the armed Naxalite group Janayuddha (People's War Group - PWG). In the 1990s, he became a zonal secretary and later a member of the Central Committee. According to the police, he was also present at the formation of the new organization, CPI (Maoist), which was formed in September 2004 through the merger of the PWG and the MCC (Maoist Communist Centre).

Apart from a case related to the murder of a village headman in 2012, there are no other serious criminal cases registered against Sitaram. According to the police, he looked after the ideological matters of the organization and its urban activities. Evading police surveillance for the past 13 years, Sitaram had been moving around in several cities across India and maintaining contact with supporters of the Maoist movement.

He was overseeing the activities of the urban organization. Two other Maoist members, Om Prakash and Dhanu, were his associates in this work. Police claim that they were also operating under the guise of several front organizations to garner public support for the Maoist cause.