India: Revival Interrupted In Kerala – Analysis

By Deepak Kumar Nayak

On August 2, 2024, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Kerala Police arrested C.P. Moideen (49), the ‘chief’ of the Kabani Dalam (armed squad), a ‘zonal committee member’ commanding the ‘Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC)’ of the proscribed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), at Mararikulam in Alappuzha District of Kerala. Moideen was travelling on a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus from Kollam to Thrissur. Moideen is accused in 36 cases, including those registered under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), and was allegedly leading the activities of the banned organisation in Kerala. According to a statement issued by the State Police Media Centre (SPMC), the Police were waiting for him (Moideen) based on information that he would be travelling from Kollam to Thrissur on a KSRTC bus. 

C.P. Moideen, a native of Pandikkad in Malappuram District, had been absconding since 2014 after being accused in various cases and had escaped the Police net on several occasions in the past. The last such incident was reported on April 24, 2024, when a four-member group of suspected armed Maoist cadres were spotted in the Kambamala area in Wayanad District and urged the people to boycott the April 26 Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament) polls. The suspected rebels were wearing uniforms and carrying guns. According to locals, Moideen was present in the group. The Maoists fled the area before arrival of the Security Forces (SFs). 

It is useful to note that within just ten days, two other Maoists of the Kabani Dalam have also been arrested by the ATS. Soman aka Akbar (41), a leader of the Kabani Dalam and Nadukani Dalam of the ‘WGSZC’, was arrested from Shoranur in Palakkad District on July 27, 2024, while Manoj aka Ashiq (26), was arrested from Brahmapuram near Ernakulam South Railway Station in Kochi District on July 18, 2024, for his alleged involvement in Maoist activities of the Kabani Dalam in Wayanad. Santosh, another member of the Dalam, is said to be hiding in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. 

The Maoist WGSZC was formed in 2011, covering areas coming under the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu (KKT). It was the fourth ‘Guerrilla Zone’ in the country, the others being the North Telangana, Dandakaranya, and Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committees. According to an article written by an underground Kerala Maoist leader, Roopesh, in Mathrubhumi weekly in 2013, the WGSZC was formed to target KKT in view of the ‘exploitation faced by scores of tribals, Scheduled Caste people, and landless poor farmers’ in these areas, as against the booming economic prospects of nearby cities such as Erode, Coimbatore, Palakkad, Kochi, Kozhikode, and Mangalore. The Maoist move is said to be part of an ambitious plan to extend the purported Red Corridor from Jharkhand to Wayanad. 

The first setback for the WGSZC was recorded on July 8, 2014, when senior CPI-Maoist leader VS Sinoj aka Ramesan aka Rajan was killed in an accidental blast while assembling an explosive device in the deep forests of Wayanad District. Sinoj, one of the nine persons in the first lookout notice issued against the Maoists in Kerala by SFs, was a member of the armed platoon of the CPI-Maoist’s WGSZC. He was also in charge of the political department of the Kabani Dalam. 

The setbacks continued with the arrest of the Committee’s senior leader, Roopesh, and his wife, Shyna, from a bakery in Karumathampatti in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, in the evening of May 4, 2015. Roopesh was in charge of the WGSZC and was believed to be leading the Maoist movement in Kerala. He had some 20 criminal cases against him registered in Kerala. Roopesh, a law graduate from Thrissur (Kerala), with a diploma in Information Technology, was among the most wanted Maoist leaders in the country. One unnamed Police official involved in the operations noted, 

It is a big catch. Roopesh was leading Maoist operations in the KKT tri-junction and involved in the attacks on forest establishments in Kerala and also on some MNC retail outlets. His wife Shyna was working as clerk in the Kerala High Court and later joined the Maoists. 

To make matters worse, Murali Kannamballi aka K. Muralidharan aka Ajith aka Thomas Joseph, a ‘central committee (CC)’ member, was arrested along with his young aide, Ismail Hamza Chiragpilli aka Pravin aka James Mathew, by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) from Talegaon Dabhade near Pune, on May 8, 2015. 

Further, in a significant loss, Maoist ‘CC’ member Kuppuswamy Devarajan aka Shanker, who was coordinating the party work in WGSZC, was killed along with Ajitha aka Kaveri, a woman leader, in an encounter with the Police inside the Nilambur Forest area in Malappuram District on November 24, 2016.. 

May 9, 2017, reports stated that CPI-Maoist cadres had formed a new ‘combat and operational’ unit ‘Varahini Dalam’ headed by C.P. Moideen in the KKT tri-junction, to avenge the deaths of Shanker and Ajitha in the November 24, 2016, incident. The new Dalam was the fourth such unit that CPI-Maoist cadres raised in Kerala; the others were the Kabani Dalam, operating in Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram districts; the Nadukani Dalam, which focusses on Nilambur and Tamil Nadu’s Gudalur districts; and the Bhavani Dalam, which focusses on Palakkad and Coimbatore. 

Later, a November 21, 2019 report revealed that, under WGSZC, four Dalams were operating in the state: Nadukani, Bhavani, Varahini, and Kabani (the Kabani Dalam is further divided into K1 and K2). The Kabani Dalam was the first and prominent Dalam set up by CPI-Maoist in Kerala, to expand its activities in the KKT tri-junction. The then State Police operations chief, Loknath Behera, thus noted,

We have managed to weaken the activities of the dalam in the past three years through various counter operations. Identifying the members of the dalam was in itself a major challenge and the police now have a complete list of the members of all the dalams that included Kabani…. We have taken up the recent sightings of the Maoists as a major development and have issued appropriate directions to deal with it. 

Meanwhile, the Maoists suffered another two blows in 2019, with the killing of C.P. Jaleel in an encounter with the Thunderbolts (an elite commando force of the Kerala Police) at a resort in the Lakkidi village of Vythiri in Wayanad District on March 6, 2019, and the killing of four of its cadres, Manivasakam, Rema, Karthi, and Aravind, of the Bhavani Dalam by the Police in an encounter at Manjakkatty under Attappadi Block (administrative unit) in Palakkad District on October 28 and 29, 2019. Following the annihilation of Bhavani Dalam on October 28 and 29, 2019, the CPI-Maoist renamed the second Kabani Dalam (K2) operating in Wayanad and Kannur as the Banasura Dalam. Moreover, another cadre, Velmurugan, an expert in handling arms, propagating Maoist ideology, and an active member of the WGSZC, was shot dead in the forests near Meenmutty in Wayanad District on November 3, 2020. 

Soon after, the Kerala Police ATS arrested senior CPI-Maoist leader B. G. Krishnamurthy aka BGK, who was the ‘secretary’ of the WGSZC, and Savithri aka Rejitha, the ‘commander’ of the Kabani Dalam, from Sulthan Bathery in the Wayanad District of Kerala, on November 9, 2021. With the arrest of B. G. Krishnamurthy, the activities of the Nadukani Dalam came to a halt. 

After facing continuous setbacks in the state, the Maoists’ central leadership decided to revamp the state leadership to strengthen their activities. A Central Committee (CC) member, Sanjay Deepak Rao aka Vijay Rao (60), a resident of Andhra Pradesh, took over the leadership of the Maoists in Kerala with the aim of strengthening the armed force in the state. However, Deepak, who was allegedly imparting military training to the cadres in the WGSZC, was arrested in the Hyderabad District of Telangana on September 13, 2023. Further, Kavitha, a member of the WGSZC, suffered serious injuries in police firing in Kannur in November 2023 and later succumbed to her injuries at Aralam in the forest area of the Kannur-Wayanad border area of Kerala, on December 29, 2023. 

According to a November 10, 2023, report, it is believed that Hanumanthu aka Ganesh Uike, associated with the Maoists’ Dandakaranya Zonal Committee, and a CC member, had shifted his operational area to the WGSZC following the arrest of Sanjay Deepak Rao in Telangana. Intelligence agencies assert that Uike has been in charge of the WGSZC and has visited Kerala several times. Uike is said to be coordinating the Maoist activities in the KKT tri-junction. 

The continuous arrest of the senior urban cadres of the ‘WGSZC’, including Rajan Chittilappilli (arrested in Thrissur District on December 8, 2020), T.K. Rajeevan (arrested in Wayanad District on November 16, 2020), Gautam aka R. Raghavendran aka Vinod Kumar aka Ravi Murukesh (32) (arrested in Kannur District on November 7, 2021), C.P. Usman (arrested in Malappuram District on September 14, 2021), B.G. Krishnamurthy, and Sanjay Deepak Rao, crippled the activities of the WGSZC rebels in the cities in Kerala. The Banasura Dalam, or Kabani (K2), was formed after the wiping out of Bhavani Dalam in the Manjakkatty firing and cessation of the Nadukani Dalam, but Maoist activities didn’t get the push they expected. The arrest of two senior Maoists, Chandru (a native of Tamil Nadu) and Unnimaya (from Karnataka), during an encounter at Chapparam colony near Periya under Thalappuzha Police Station limits in Wayanad District on November 7, 2023, also brought the Banasura Dalam to a halt.  

An October 19, 2023, report revealed that the movement in the Western Ghats was led by C.P. Moideen until a new ‘CC member’ took charge. Jayanna aka Varghese, and Suresh aka Pradeep, were the other ‘zonal committee members’ tasked to help Moideen. The arrest of Manoj, Soman, and C.P. Moideen in July–August 2024 finally put an end to the Kabani Dalam. Further, of the two Moideen aides, Suresh was arrested during an operation in the Kanjirakolli Forest area in Kannur District on February 17, 2024, while the whereabouts of Jayanna are not known. 

Meanwhile, according to an August 8, 2024, report, it has been learnt that the remaining Maoists have relocated themselves to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as part of the redeployment plan. 

According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 10 fatalities have been connected to the WGSZC in the state since the formation of the Committee in 2011. Of the 10 fatalities, one fatality (Maoist) was registered in 2014, two (both Maoists) in 2016, five (all Maoists) in 2019, and one (Maoist) each in 2020, and 2023. Clearly, a maximum of five fatalities was registered once in 2019, while a low of one fatality was recorded three times in 2014, 2020, and 2023.

Significantly, no fatalities have been recorded in the civilian and SF categories in the state since 2011 or since March 6, 2000, when SATP started documenting LWE violence in the country. 

SFs have arrested 53 Maoists in the state since 2011, including three in 2023 and the above-mentioned four in 2024 (data as of August 11). 

Two Maoists have surrendered in the state since 2011, including one in 2024. The other surrender was registered on October 25, 2021, when P. Lijesh aka Ramu, a senior CPI-Maoist leader claiming to be the ‘deputy commander’ of the Kabani Dalam of the WGSZC, who worked for the organization in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, surrendered without arms before Superintendent of Police (SP) Aravind Sukumar in the Wayanad District. 

The number of total incidents linked to the WGSZC reached a peak of 21 in 2015, but came down to one in 2012. Similarly, the number of killing incidents fell from a peak of three in 2019 to one in 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2023. 

The numbers suggest that the WGSZC remained a peripheral challenge to security for a long time but has, over the last couple of years, lost its strength. The SFs have been able to contain the SZC by targeting its leadership elements as well as its cadre base. 

The Maoists’ attempts to re-establish a stronghold in the KKT tri-junction have again received a setback. The WGSZC has been weakened further with the arrest of ‘chief’ C.P. Moideen, but remains a concern, particularly in view of the still elusive cadres. Despite its decimation, as long as the remaining leadership elements are able to dodge the SFs, the WGSZC will remain an irritant in the state.

• Deepak Kumar Nayak
  Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management