CPI (Maoist) PB Member Azad Killed in fake encounter
Posted by Admin on July 3, 2010
THE END: The body of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar lies where he was killed in Adilabad district on Friday. The HIndu
The Andhra Pradesh police on Friday said it had shot dead top naxalite Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, along with an unidentified cohort, in an exchange of fire in Adilabad district, close to the State’s border with Maharashtra.
The death of Azad, a member and spokesman of the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) and a member of the Polit Bureau, has dealt a big blow to the Maoist movement in India. He was an ideologue who had specialised in field-craft as well.
Even as some sources questioned the encounter theory, the police said the gunfight lasted more than three hours. An AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and two kitbags were found at the scene.
The alleged encounter took place on a 500-metre-high hillock 3 km from the nearest motorable road. With the monsoon having set in, the forest had become lush green, and the tribals had started farming operations. Some of them were tilling the land, but none would speak to The Hindu about the encounter.
Azad, around 58 years old, hailed from Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He went underground in 1979. He was arrested in 1975 and 1978 and jumped bail. He carried a reward of Rs. 12 lakh on his head.
A decades-old picture of Azad from the police files
He had apparently been tasked with reviving the Maoist movement in Andhra Pradesh. He was a member of the Urban Sub-Committee (USCO) and was in charge of the South Western Regional Bureau (SWRB) of Maoists, which coordinates the movement in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Police sources familiar with the Maoists’ pattern of activity said Friday’s encounter deaths could lead to reprisal attacks in Maoist strongholds in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. They, however, said the death of Azad had broken the aura of invincibility that the Maoists were seeking to create by means of their recent brutal strikes against the security forces.
Adilabad Superintendent of Police P. Promod Kumar told journalists that the police had launched combing operations following intelligence inputs that a team of Maoists had moved into the forests from Maharashtra. One of the police teams encountered a group of 25 to 30 rebels in the hilly terrain near Sarkepally, a village 15 km from the border with Maharashtra.
“Our team… cautioned them to surrender, but it came under fire, forcing it to retaliate,” the officer said.
Indian Vanguard 
Rajiv said
Mr Rajeesh is not helping matters at all with his manner of reportage. His article title “CPI (Maoist) PB Member Azad Killed in a fake encounter” does not carry any substantiation or argument to support the title of the article.
The Naxalite problem is a complex one. The Maoists have entered a space the State left open, due its carelessness and apathy. However, no one in civil society sides with or supports the Maoist agenda or philosophy – any one who professes to be a Maoist, anyone who professes to speak for the downtrodden with a gun in hand, need to be exterminated by the State.
It is no one’s case that rapacious MNCs be allowed to sweep the mineral wealth of tribal areas. It should also not be anyone’s case that rapacious Maoist idealogues be allowed to hold sway over large swathes of India. The extermination of ‘Azad’, who is a fugitive from the law and carries a prize on his head, was a job well done. Bravo!
bhuvi said
read a little more before you decide whether or not there’s enough substantiation, and whether those in so called civil society side with someone.
perhaps you believe that some politicians are better qualified to control and sweep the “mineral wealth of india” than mncs?
lambodar Prasad Dash said
From my 10 years rigorous study and research and some personal journalistic contacts i know cherkupuri Rajkumar @ Azad. He through his wrok proved himself as an indian ” CHE GUEVERA”. He again proved himself as Chandra Sekhar AZad for tribals of india. Interestingly some of the facts of this Azad matched with our great Azad chdersekher, the freedom martyr. Vande Mataram.
Nar said
People who dont believe in democracy and dont care for their country will naturally have a violent death.
Mr.Lambodhar please dont compare the great chandrashekar azad with this anti national.
arun said
mr.azad was a strong believer of democracy.(A true democracy),He was a patriotic hero.He deserves the comparison with the chandrashekhar azad.
“True democracy is not possible with in the frame work of capitalism.It’s only possible with in the frame work of socialism”.
(Hugo chavez)
Mr Nar,Learn what is democracy And How it could be implemented?.
who care for your country?. Those bourgeois leaders?.Completely corrupted ,dancing with the tones of MNC’s &corporate houses.
open your eyes.
Ramesh Berry said
Democracy, true or false
Abraham Lincoln, after the American civil war, in his speech said, “Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people”. This is considered to be the best definition of democracy. But the problem comes in its implementation for it has to be implemented through various institutions, departments, etc, such as:
(1) Written Constitution (2) Fundamental Rights (3) Fundamental Duties (4) Political Parties
(5) Free and Fair Elections (6) Legislative (7) Executive (8) Independent Judiciary (9) Rule of Law (10) Neutral Bureaucracy (11) Planning Commission (12) Reserve Bank of India (13) Universal Compulsory Education (14) Free Fair Media (15) Respect for Public Opinion
These are some of the basic institutions and departments which help in successful functioning of democracy.
Now point out any institution or department which is not bubbling with corruption. Our Constitutional Assembly was a big hoax. It was never elected by the people for drafting the Constitution. It was the biggest fraud played upon the people by the Indian capitalists hand-in-glove with imperialists. Many representatives belonged to the imperialist camp.
Take the political parties. They all are helped, directly or indirectly, by the capitalists. Our elections are based on money and muscle powers. They are never free or fair. Our government is pro-vested interest and violates public opinion with impunity.
About judiciary, less said the better. Judges do not make distinction between political term judiciary (the over all judicial structure) and the legal term court, because they do not want reforms in the judicial system and involve all who speak for reforms to pin down under contempt of court. For our Supreme Court, the Preamble of the Constitution is heart and soul of our Constitutional law but it cannot be implemented like Directive Principle of State Policy. How strange!! But the government is free to enact laws, violating the provisions enshrined in the Preamble or in the articles of the Directive Principles. What a mockery of the Constitution!! Judges appoint the judges!!!
What is the picture of our Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies? They howl in the well of the house to waste public time and money to harm public work. Our politicians are corrupt to the core. Their loyalty is less with the people and more with the corporates. They are hand-in-glove with the mafias. They have neither any principle nor any ideology and therefore always ready to cross the floor.
How neutral is our bureaucracy? It can be the guess of anyone. High-brow bureaucrats think they are super human beings. They are equally corrupt, arrogant and inefficient. They wag their tails before the rich and scornfully look down upon the poor. Media is also handmaid of the capitalist class. It is notoriously pro-establishment, pro-capitalist, pro-rich and pro-imperialists.
For the army, our opinion is divided because Lenin said, “Soldiers are peasants in uniform, and therefore we have respect for them”. But the high ranking officers are loyal towards the establishment. We know, how, like the capitalist press, they opposed our Defence Minister V.K.Krishna Menon when he refused to grant permission to late G.D.Birla to manufacture army vehicles.
Our Planning Commission and Reserve Bank need no comments as we are witnessing the present economic chaos, rising prices, rich becoming more and more rich while poor are becoming more and more poor because of their anti-people and pro-capitalist policies. Our educational system is totally in the hands of the capitalists. The NDA government led by pro-Hindutav BJP hand it over to the capitalists as private enterprise whereas in ancient India, it was considered as a service. Now it is a profitable industry, bubbling with corruption, discrimination and inefficiency.
From 1962-67 we lived under emergency and our democracy earned the nickname of “emergenci-o-cracy”. Now it is nicknamed as “corruption-o-cracy”. No wonder, the people are worked up and government wants to crush the democratic rights of the people with black acts. Before internal emergency, Congress floated the idea of limited dictatorship. During the emergency, it prescribed presidential form of democracy. The NDA government also toyed with this idea. Now we have good number of black acts to give power to government to crush democratic culture. It is fascism from the backdoor.
At the end, I would like to assert in the words of Madam Rolland. During the French revolution, when she was moving towards the guillotine placed near the Statue of Liberty, she looked at it and exclaimed, “Oh Liberty! How they played with you!!” I assert, “Oh! Democracy how they play with you!!!”
KBS said
Rajiv and Nar, are you sure democracy in our country works for everyone? Forget corruption which we city middle class people always see in public life, that is nothing compared to what our tribals and slum-dwellers (again mostly SCs and minorities) go through in their lives. If you have ever had any first-hand experience of that life, you would have been ashamed to defend your fancy democracy in front of them.
Neither of you seem to have any doubt that Azad was killed in an “encounter”. Maybe you are right, maybe wrong. But what strikes me is that you don’t have ANY doubt about that, given the track record of Indian police elsewhere? Or do you think it is perfectly OK to bump off a Maoist irritant extra-legally? In other words you have no problem if the state behaves as a lawless rogue. Is that so?
KBS said
Another point for Nar…..
I am not sure whether Azad could or should be compared with Chandrasekhar Azad. But I know that CS Azad fought to liberate India from foreign domination, while one of the long-term agendas of the Maoist is to oppose foreign mining companies from wanton exploitation of our natural resources.
The foreign companies seek only profit, they are not bothered about India or her people or environment. Very few non-Maoist parties have raised their voice against this exploitation. When you say that Maoists should be summarily destroyed you effectively support this exploitation. So don’t yell when a Bhopal happens next time.
sri said
Cherukuri Rajkumar “Azad” amar rahe. Inquilab Zindabad.
sid said
“Those who lack imagination cannot imagine what is lacking”———-French student struggle graffiti
It sums up the mentality of the middle and upper class people in our society. We fail to see beyond, what the corporate media and the state wants us to see. When there is an attack on the security forces the media asks the human right activists to condemn the act. But when the security forces commit atrocities against tribal the media maintains absolute silence. The reason is very simple war is financed by the corporate organised by the state, and the media controlled. Nobody asks Chidambaram to condemn such acts. Having seen the ground reality I have understood that the poor support the Maoists to fight against state repression. Hunger, illiteracy and malnourishment are their main enemies that’s why the Maoists are their friends. This democracy is for the few. The state is choking all the voices of dissent not only that of the Maoists but every other democratic movements. While making any comments supporting or rejecting an incident try to understand the reality.
“Truth like light blinds us. Falsehood, on the contrary is beautiful twilight that enhances every object”———Albert Camus. Don’t let falsehood guide you.
Ramesh Berry said
The photograph of Late Shri Azad published in the media apparently speaks for the false encounter. In a genuine encounter the victim mostly falls either on the gun or with the gun on his body. That is why in Sparta while giving shield to warrior son his mother used to say, “With it or on it”. Even if the gun falls as a result of shock and pain its position cannot be as it is in the photograph.
It appears the gun has been placed carefully. The expression on the face of the victim do not reveal the heat of the encounter. He is calm, quite and composed and clothes are neat and clean. I could not see the injuries on the body in the photograph. Generally the hands moves towards the injury. If the injury is on the chest or stomach the man should fall flat, as we see victim lying on his back. But if the shot is taken by the victim on his back, he must fall in reverse position to avoid the pain. We need more photos to analyse the truth.
We also want to Know how many rounds were fired by the police and the Red fugitive. How long the encounter took place between both the sides, how many jawans were engaged in the encounter, the finger prints taken from the gun along with the foot prints.
As a lawyer with standing of almost half a century it is difficult to swallow the encounter theory of the encounter- expert police with a pinch of salt. How can we blame others when our rulers are violating law with impunity and encouraging false encounters?
The Maoist are dying for the mission while our jawans are losing their lives for the sake of their jobs. The real guilty person who have joined hands with the foreign and national mafias are enjoying the best of life in their air-conditioned chambers.
let us not forget that the Maoists are fighting for people’s democracy while we are living in false bourgeois democracy where rich are becoming richer and poor are becoming poorer. The tribals under the Maoists are fighting for Jal, Jameen, Jungle and Janni (Water, Land, forest and Mother-Respect of their women).
At least Maoists speak the truth when they assert, “Political power comes out of the barrel of the gun” while capitalist Hippocrates try to deceive us by saying “Political power lies in the vote in India”. Various election commissioners for last so many years are asserting that our election are based on “money and muscle power”, throwing the lie right on the face of the champions of false democracy.
Our ministers are saying that the Maoists are coward for they are hiding in the jungles. Where our ministers are hiding? In the safety of their air conditioned rooms protected by their guards armed to the teeth!!!!!! How many sons and daughters of our ministers are in the armed forces? How many of them have laid down their lives for the country in the battlefields int these sixty years of our so-called independence?
According to Charu Mazzumdar our rulers are not capable of bringing any meaningful reforms in the country because the anti-reform forces are too strong for them. Therefore, according to him armed struggle is necessary. Let the government prove it false by introducing meaningful reforms in elections, judicial system, police system, educational system, fiscal policies, etc.
Anyhow, I feel sorry that the finest flowers of our youth are dying in the prime of their life, on both the sides. We wish peace, progress and prosperity for our countrymen and therefore, we request both the sides to start an open debate so that, as William Shakespeare said “Truth comes out of errors”.
Ramesh Berry said
Hum bhi hain is chaman-ki bulbulain
humara bhi haq hai fasle bahar pe
—–Song of the down-trodden
arun said
“Azad was a man ,now he is a star .”Sithar mein badal gaya”
there are so many in the path of revolution .how many will be encountered as along as oppression is there.
Ramesh Berry said
By killing RajKumar Azad in a cold-blooded manner by the govt. he has been made a National hero which will inspire many more young men to take up guns to fight for the down-trodden to end exploitation of man by man. The govt. of India has committed the same mistake which was committed by the govt. of Bolivia. Ernesto Che Guevera after his death became an institution to inspire people all over the world. Now Azad has become an institution. I do not know how long the rulers all over the world will keep on repeating such mistakes. It reminds me about a couplet of Sir Mohd.Iqbal: Teri tehzeeb apne khanjar se khudkushi kar legi; ashiyana-ae-nazuk-pe paye-dar na hoga (Your system is self-destroying as it is based on weak foundation).
Green Red said
Yes Indeed Ramesh but,
Commandante Che Guevara tried lots of things. And after Cuba he went many places that did not necessarily had compatible conditions with tactics and strategy for revolution he had presumed correct.
Here i am not here to say that who is good or better but, AZADI, what his rev name had in it, is what inevitably comes over one of the most populated and, still kept backward in lots of its parts lands of the world.
His revolutionary spirit will bring Azadi, Freedom for people from SEZs that talented scholar, G.N. Saibaba writes about. Freedom from moving people off their tribal, traditional lands. And, freedom fighters who don’t just plant a red flag on people’s head. Rather, they put their time in digging wells for water, fixing water system for agriculture, leading people to read, write and, make, revolution.
Thus, Azad Never Dies.
arun said
“kisike muskurahaton pe ho misal
kisi ke dard milsake tho le utta
kisi ke wasthein he there dil mein pyar
jeena useeka naam hein”
Azad showed the art of living.you will never die.Will be alive in the heart of oppressed &exploited toiling masses.