Andhra Pradesh police have arrested Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist Janashakti Central Committee secretary K Rajanna and four other top leaders of the outfit.

A special police party made the arrests from a bus station in Barabanki district headquarters near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday afternoon.

Disclosing the arrests of these top Naxalite functionaries on Saturday evening, Karimnagar District Superintendent of Police Devendra Singh Chauhan said that on credible information about the CPI-ML Janashakti (Rajanna group) organising a meeting in Uttar Pradesh and also to execute pending non-bailable warrants against Kura Rajaiah alias Rajanna, the special police party had proceeded to Uttar Pradesh.

The special police party nabbed five Naxalite leaders, namely, Rajanna (59), Andhra Pradesh state committee members Yerramreddy Narasimha Reddy alias Satyam [Get Quote] (31), Nambhi Narsimhaiah alias Ram Pullaiah (53), Maharashtra state committee secretary Ramakishan Pawar alias Ram (50) and district committee secretary of Bijnore (UP) Ashok Kumar Rajput (50).

The police also recovered a .32 pistol, one hand grenade, 40 electric detonators, an 8 mm rifle, a 9 mm rifle, several cartridges, Rs 3,00,000 in cash, party literature and 36 important documents besides the personal belongings from the arrested leaders.

Chauhan said that the arrested Naxalites made an abortive attempt to escape when the police team stopped the vehicle at Venkatraopet near Metpalli in Karimnagar district in the state after bringing them from Uttar Pradesh on Friday night.

Soon after the police stopped the vehicle to allow the arrested leaders to attend to a call of nature, they assaulted the policemen, but were soon overpowered.

The police later produced the Naxalite leaders at Metpalli court on Saturday. Magistrate G Malathi remanded them to judicial custody. The police shifted them to Jagtial sub-jail at night. "Detailed interrogation will help unravel the nexus between the extremist outfit and other organisations," the superintendent of police said.

Rajanna, a native of Boinwada in Vemulawada temple town, is an engineering graduate from Osmania University. He joined the Naxalite movement in 1974 and later founded the Rajanna faction of CPI-ML (Janashakti).

During his three-decade long underground life, Rajanna was never arrested by the police.

He was an accused in several cases of murder, extortion, arson and kidnapping. He was also instrumental in supplying arms and ammunition to the erstwhile People's War Group.

His wife died in an encounter in 1999. Amar, state committee secretary, who represented Janashakti in the abortive peace talks with the Andhra Pradesh government in October 2004, is the brother of Rajanna.

The Janashakti (Rajanna group) had masterminded the kidnapping of Marthand Rao, a close relative of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and then union minister of state for home Vidyasagar Rao in 2001 for ransom. Marthand Rao was
released by the abductors after they collected an undisclosed amount from his family. 

Incidentally, the police announced the arrests ending nearly 36 hours of suspense after a habeas corpus petition was filed in the Andhra Pradesh high court by A Savithri, a relative of Rajanna, on Friday.

The petitioner contended that there was a threat to the life of Rajanna and others since the police might kill them on their way from UP to AP on the pretext of self-defence.

The petitioner sought a direction to the police to produce him before the court.

A division bench comprising Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice Chandraiah had directed the state police to respond to the allegation that Rajanna was in police custody. The case was adjourned to Monday, asking the police to file the response by then.

The same day, a delegation of civil rights activists and former Naxalites, including revolutionary balladeer Gaddar, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, former AP Civil Liberties committee president M Ratnamala and Janashakti group leader Chandranna met Home Minister K Jana Reddy and sought the details of whereabouts of Rajanna and other Janashakti leaders.

However, Jana Reddy had claimed that he had no information on the arrest of the Naxalite leaders. All the same, he had directed Additional DGP (Intelligence) K Aravinda Rao to verify with his subordinates and the UP police whether the Naxalite leaders were in police custody.