Life has taken a 180-degree turn for Bhupathi alias Abhay alias Mallojula Venugopal alias Sonu. He was once a dreaded Maoist, who had a bounty of ₹6 crore on his head, with the police of six different States chasing him. Less than a year after surrendering before the Maharashtra Police, an event that had led to the breaking of the back of Maoism in Maharashtra, the 70-year-old man now looks at a different future.
They will receive a monthly stipend of ₹30,000 and travel allowance.
The coordinators will visit various villages in Gadchiroli district to supervise the functioning of the Gram Sabhas and to create awareness among the local tribal communities about their rights, particularly under forest-related legislations such as PESA, according to the University notification. He says that life after surrender has had its own challenges, and he is keen to relocate to his own native place. “Several of us who had surrendered, want to move out of police surveillance and go back to our own village to settle there,” he said. Adding that they were not aware of the one year direct police surveillance after surrender, he said it was causing an issue particularly for the young women who are unable to get married in their village, as they are kept under surveillance in Gadchiroli. Police said that the official procedures regarding the making of the government documents to mainstream them take time.
Many tribals are not aware about their rights. Why did we come out of the movement? To struggle for them, we came out. There is no party anymore to go back to it. There is no need to go back to the party. We have left arms now. We can’t work with arms. He also refused the possibility of forming a political party. He expressed concern about the government acquiring fertile land of the tribals for development projects, leading to flashpoints.
Because we could not work for people, with arms.
There are different ways of working,” he said, adding that he was not inclined to join any mainstream political party either, despite getting several invites. “Even today, our intention is to bring awareness among people.
