Patel Sudhakar Reddy

Patel Sudhakar Reddy (d. May 23, 2009) was a leader of the central committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI[M]).

Biography

He hailed from the village of Kurthiravulacheruvu, near Maldakal in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. Though was the son of a landlord, he was attracted to the proletarian revolutionary movement during his student life. He started his revolutionary career as a member of Radical Students Union in Gadwal area. Later he joined the CPI (ML) People's War Group that later became the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

In 1983, Sudhakar Reddy moved to the Eturnagaram-Mahadevpur forest in north Telangana as commander of a guerrilla squad. Later his Party transferred him to Gadchiroli district until his arrest in 1992 in Bangalore and seven-year imprisonment. After his release he returned to revolutionary work in Dandakaranya and then Andhra Pradesh. In 2005 he was elected to his party's Central Committee.

Sudhakar Reddy was reported to have been killed in an encounter with armed forces of the Indian state in Warangal district on May 23, 2009. The CPI(M) has alleged that this was a premeditated and staged murder by the state and that Sudhakar Reddy was arrested in Nashik and was tortured and killed in Warangal district.