In Chhattisgarh, fifteen active cadres of outlawed CPI (Maoists), carrying a combined bounty of nearly fifty lakh rupees, laid down arms in Sukma district yesterday. The group, comprising ten men and five women, formally surrendered before Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran Chavan at the district police headquarters.
Among them were four hardcore members of the dreaded People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion No. 1 – PPCM Madvi Sanna, Sodi Hidme, Suryam alias Ravva Soma and Meena alias Madvi Bheeme – each carrying a reward of eight lakh rupees on their heads.
Speaking to reporters, SP Chavan said the surrenders were a direct fallout of the leadership vacuum and deepening fear created by the most-wanted Maoist commander Madvi Hidma’s elimination earlier this month. Continuous expansion of security forces deep inside erstwhile Maoist strongholds, coupled with the Chhattisgarh government’s attractive Naxal Surrender Rehabilitation Policy-2025, has shattered cadre morale.
Announcing an immediate incentive of fifty thousand rupees to each surrenderer, SP Kiran Chavan appealed to the remaining Maoists to shun violence.
With today’s development, the number of Maoists who have abandoned the movement in Chhattisgarh this year has crossed 650, signalling a rapid collapse of the four-decade-old insurgency ahead of the Centre’s March 2026 deadline to end Maoism.
