Azad (Maoist)
Cherukuri Rajkumar (alias Azad) (1952 – 1 July 2010) was the spokesperson and one of the seniormost members of the Central Politburo of the banned Maoist group Communist Party of India. On 1 July 2010, he was killed by Andhra Pradesh Police in an encounter.
Early life
Rajkumar was born in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He completed his school education from Sainik School Korukonda and graduated from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, the fountainhead of Left ideology in Andhra in the 1970s. He completed his MTech, from National Institute of Technology, Warangal and became a leader of the Radical Students Union which was a breeding ground for many Naxalites.
Maoist activities
Rajkumar then joined the People's War Group on whose behalf he used negotiate arms deals and training in handling of weapons and explosives and he went underground. But cases of threat and intimidation apart, he did not have a police record in Andhra Pradesh. After Maoist parties merged to form the CPI (Maoist), he had been handling mostly political affairs of the party. Rajkumar was underground for 30 years and assumed several aliases including Madhav, Gangadhar, Madhu and Uday. He was an ideologue who had specialised in field-craft as well. Azad went underground in 1979. He was arrested in 1975 and 1978 and jumped bail, carrying a reward of Rs. 1.2 million on his head. He was an accused in the killing of Congress legislator C Narsi Reddy along with 10 others in Mahbubnagar district on 15 August 2005. Apart from being the central committee member, he was also the member of the politburo, the highest policy making body of the organisation.