“I cannot believe that Shivakumar was a naxalite and had kept weapons in my house which was rented out to him… He was such a nice person and was very good with everybody in the tanda (hamlet),” said Seethabai Daku Singh, who had let out the single-room house to State Committee Member of the CPI (Maoist) Chandrashekar Gorebale (also called Shivakumar), who was arrested by the Andhra Police on Sunday.
The most-wanted Maoist leader by the Karnataka Police had told the residents of the tanda, dominated by the Banjara community, that he was a Ph.D. student. He visited the tanda once every fortnight to stay for just two or three days. But during his short stay, he would mingle freely with the neighbours and played chess with the youngsters in the Tanda.
Not a single person in the tanda had anything bad to say about Gorebale, who stayed alone in the house, never bringing any of his associates to his house. “He was always friendly with the children,” said Sunita, Gorebale's neighbour.
What is surprising is that Gorebale lived just 150 m from the Bhimarayanagudi Police Station.
Inconsistencies
Inquiries among residents of the tanda also revealed inconsistencies in the claims of the Andhra Pradesh Police about the timing of the arrest of the Maoist in Mahabubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh and the seizure of weapons, including an AK 47 assault rifle, 9 mm rifle and ammunitions, wireless sets and Maoist literature.
While the Andhra Pradesh police claimed that Gorebale was arrested during a routine check-up of vehicles on Sunday, residents of the tanda said the naxalite was brought to the tanda in a vehicle by plainclothesmen a week back. They demanded the keys of the room in which the Maoist was living from the owner. When the owner asked why they wanted the keys, they pointed to Gorebale sitting in the vehicle and said he had been arrested in connection with some “theft”. They later removed all his belongings from the house and left the scene. The Andhra Pradesh police had also claimed that the seizures were made from the den of the naxalite in Shahapur taluk in Yadgir district on Sunday.
