NEW DELHI: CPI(Maoist) central committee member Modem Balakrishna, killed in a counter-Naxal operation in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday, was arrested thrice – at Bhadrachalam in 1984, in Mahabubnagar in 1987 and in Kurnool district in 1993.Balakrishna is the sixth central committee member to be neutralised this year. The others eliminated are Chalapathi (in Jan); Vivek Chandri Yadav, alias Prayag, killed in Jharkhand (April); CPI(Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraj, a PB and CC member, in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh (last month); Thentu Lakshmi, alias Sudhakar, killed in Bijapur (June); and Gajarla Ravi, neutralised in Andhra Pradesh (June).Balakrishna spent two years in Warangal Central Jail following his arrest in 1984, before being released in 1986 end. After being arrested again, by Mahabubnagar police, in 1987, he remained in Musheerabad jail till Jan 1990, only to be released in a swap deal to free kidnapped TDP MLA Venkateswara Rao. Following his arrest in March 1993 in Kurnool district, Balakrishna spent over six years in Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda Central Jail. He was released on conditional bail on Aug 18, 1999. He seized the opportunity to go underground and resumed his Maoist activities with renewed vigour, and had been untraceable since.Balakrishna was, following his release from prison in 1999, made secretary of the Odisha state organising committee and was in charge of the western bureau under the Odisha state committee at the time of his neutralisation.After being released on conditional bail in Aug 1999, he had gone underground, managing to evade the security forces for several decades, until Thursday.
