Hyderabad, When P Sumathi was sitting on the dais with Telangana DJ P Shivadhar Reddy, when top Maoist leader Thibiri Tirupati alias Devoji and other Maoist leaders were surrendering before the police, no one could have guessed that it was this sari-clad woman, an IPS officer who played a crucial role in convincing the ultras to give up arms and take to the ground.
Sumathi, who heads the Special Intelligence Branch of the Telangana police, oversaw the long-term process of bringing the Maoists into the mainstream.
Devoji, a key member of the central committee of the banned organization and a member of the Politburo of the Maoist party, along with another central committee member, Mala Raje Reddy, and two other senior Maoist cadres, formally surrendered in the presence of DGP B Shivadhar Reddy on Tuesday.
Reddy, while addressing media persons during Devuji’s surrender, made special mention of Sumathi and her team.
“They surrendered because of the excellent efforts of Special Intelligence Branch IG Sumathi and the SIB team. They played a crucial role in making them understand the prevailing conditions and join the mainstream,” Reddy said.
The DGP also lauded the efforts of IGP Intelligence Vijay Kumar.
“The SIB team carried out highly professional intelligence work to ensure the surrender of top ultras as they will become ‘martyrs’ if they lose their lives in encounters and become ‘heroes’ if they are captured, while they will become ‘zeros’ if they surrender,” police sources said about the strategy behind convincing Maoist leaders to join the mainstream.
Police sources said that unlike Malugula Venugopal Rao, also known as Sonu, a key Maoist leader, who surrendered before the Maharashtra government in October last year, Devoji had no plans to leave the Maoist path and Sumathi made sure Devoji surrendered.
Sumathi, an experienced intelligence official, oversaw the surrender of 591 Maoist leaders and cadres before the Telangana police over the past two years.
The sources said that she played an important role in carrying out secret operations during her previous work in the counter-espionage cell.
Sumathi, a 2001 batch deputy superintendent of police, was first posted in Warangal and was given the post of IPS in 2006. She also served as DIG and CID.
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