Karnataka   

Arrest of ‘naxal' shocks hamlet

Seethabai Daku Singh (right), who had let out her house to Gorebale, in Hothpet Tanda on Monday.

HOTHPET TANDA (YADGIR DISTrict): “I cannot believe that Shivakumar was a naxalite and had kept weapons in my house which was rented out to him… He was such a nice person and was very good with everybody in the tanda [hamlet],” said Seethabai Daku Singh, who had let out the single-room house to Karnataka Committee member of the CPI (Maoist) Chandrashekar Gorebale (also called Shivakumar), arrested by the Andhra Police on Sunday.

Karnataka Police's most-wanted Maoist leader had told the residents, mainly belonging to the Banjara community, that he was a Ph.D. student. He visited the tanda once every fortnight to stay for just two or three days. But during his short stay, he would mingle freely with the neighbours and play chess with the youngsters. Not one person in the tanda had anything bad to say about Gorebale, who stayed alone in the house, never bringing any of his associates along. What is surprising is that Gorebale lived very near the Bhimarayanagudi Police Station.

Inquiries among residents of the tanda also revealed inconsistencies in the claims of the Andhra Pradesh Police about the timing of the arrest in Mahabubnagar district and the seizure of weapons, including an AK 47 assault rifle, 9 mm rifle and ammunition, and Maoist literature.

While the Andhra Pradesh police claimed that Gorebale was arrested during a routine check-up of vehicles on Sunday, residents of the tanda said the naxalite was brought to the tanda in a vehicle by plainclothesmen a week back.

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