Cherukuri Rajkumar (1952 – 1 July 2010), known by the alias Azad, was an Indian politician who was the spokesperson and one of the seniormost members of the Central Politburo of the banned

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

group

Communist Party of India (Maoist) The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a banned Marxist–Leninist-Maoist communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the Republic of India through protracted people's war. It was founded on 21 S ...

. On 1 July 2010, he was killed by

Andhra Pradesh Police The Andhra Pradesh Police is the law enforcement agency of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Public order and police being a state subject in India, the police force is headed by the Director General of Police, Harish Kumar Gupta, IPS. The ...

in an encounter.

Early life

Rajkumar was born in

Krishna district Krishna district is a district in the Coastal Andhra region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is surrounded on the East by Bay of Bengal, West by Guntur district, Guntur, Bapatla distric ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. He is also the maternal first cousin of Progressive Organisation for Women (POW) president V Sandhya. He completed his school education from Sainik School Korukonda and graduated from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, the fountainhead of Left ideology in Andhra in the 1970s. He completed his MTech, from

Andhra University College of Engineering Andhra University College of Engineering, also known as AU College of Engineering, is an autonomous college and extension campus of the Andhra University located at Visakhapatnam, India. It is the first Indian institution to have a Department o ...

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

and became a leader of the

Radical Students Union The Radical Students Union (RSU) was a frontal organization of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a Naxalite group. Founded in 1974, it became defunct after 2005. In 2011 there were indications of plans to revive the organization. History ...

which was a breeding ground for many

Naxalites Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic ...

Naxal activities

Rajkumar then joined the

People's War Group People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

on whose behalf he used negotiate arms deals and training in handling of weapons and explosives and he went underground. But cases of threat and intimidation apart, he did not have a police record in Andhra Pradesh. After Maoist parties merged to form the CPI (Maoist), he had been handling mostly political affairs of the party. Rajkumar was underground for 30 years and assumed several aliases including Madhav, Gangadhar, Madhu and Uday. He was an ideologue who had specialised in field-craft as well. Azad was arrested in 1975 and 1978 and jumped bail, carrying a reward of Rs. 1.2 million on his head. He went underground in 1979. He was accused in the killing of Congress legislator C. Narsi Reddy along with 10 others in Mahbubnagar district on the 15th of August 2005. Apart from being a central committee member, he was also a member of the politburo — the highest policy-making body of the organization.

Encounter

On 1 July 2010, Rajkumar was killed by the

Police in Jogapur forest area near Sarkapalli in

Adilabad district Adilabad district is a district in the northern area of Telangana, India. It is known as the gateway district to South India. The district's headquarters is the town of Adilabad. Adilabad district is bounded by Asifabad district to the east, ...

of the state, near the border with

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. He was killed along with few others including journalist Hemchandra Pandey. Police also recovered an

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

, a 9 mm pistol and rucksacks with food. As per the police the encounter started at around 10 pm on 30 June 2010 and continued till 3.30 am, the next day and that 20 Maoists were involved in the exchange of fire. Maoist sympathiser Vara Vara Rao filed a petition in the

Andhra Pradesh High Court The High Court of Andhra Pradesh is the High Court of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It serves the judicial duties of Andhra Pradesh. History The High Court of Andhra Pradesh was established in the year 1954 when the state was formed ...

. However the High Court rejected the petition. Pandey's wife and

Swami Agnivesh Swami Agnivesh (born Vepa Shyam Rao; 21 September 193911 September 2020), was an Indian social activist and the founder of Arya Sabha, a political party based on the principles of Arya Samaj.

had filed a petition in the court, seeking an independent probe into the encounter killing. The

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

had ordered for a

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...

probe in April 2011 and CBI in March 2012, submitted the probe report before the Supreme Court terming the encounter as genuine and giving a clean chit to Andhra Pradesh police. Finally on 16 March 2012, after going through the report, Supreme Court concluded that the encounter was not a fake encounter. Court observed "'They (the CBI) have done a painstaking and thorough investigation,' the bench said. 'We have carefully gone through the sequence of events.' It said that prima facie it does not appear to be a fake encounter. 'I went through the report very carefully,' Justice Alam said. The bench agreed to the plea of advocate

Prashant Bhushan Prashant Bhushan (born 15 October 1956) is an Indian author and a public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Ha ...

that he be allowed to go through the final report of the CBI which held the incident as a genuine encounter." Court rejected the plea for fresh investigation. The

Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun The Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun (, PCE-SR), also known as ( Quechua for "Red Sun") is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist group in Ecuador. It was founded on 1 June 1993 and carried out several minor bombings in that year. In 1994 the U ...

released a statement for the death of Azad, said that were an "example for the class struggle in the world".

References

External links

International Campaign Against War on the People in India
* Azad
'Maoists in India: Writings & Interviews'
edited by Friends of Azad, 2010.
Are We Living In A State That Mouths Peace But Shoots Its Messengers?
''

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' () is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague ...

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An exclusive interview to The Hindu by Azad, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)
''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''
THE THIRD LETTER: The Maoist And The Undelivered Missive. Azad’s Death Is No Man’s Peace
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'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Azad 1952 births 2010 deaths Communist Party of India (Maoist) politicians Politicians from Krishna district People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India Anti-revisionists