Hyderabad: The surrender of senior Naxal leader Mallojula Venugopal Rao, considered one of the most influential strategists in the Maoist organisation, is a “severe” setback for the Maoist ideology, a senior Telangana police official said on Tuesday.

Rao, alias Bhupathi, a native of Telangana and a member of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist)’s central committee and Politburo, surrendered before police along with 60 other cadres in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday.

Bounty of Rs 6 cr on Venugopal

A bounty of Rs 6 crore was announced by the authorities for his arrest.

The Telangana police officer said Rao could have been the CPI (Maoist) General Secretary after Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21.

“He (Ven

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