Wanted Maoist surrenders in Poonamallee court

A native of Gaddi Annaram in Hyderabad in Telangana, Padma was on the police’s radar for long, but managed to evade arrest from 2010. She even managed to escape from the police net on May 19, 2012, when Padma and Vivek came to Chennai to attend the engagement of a relative. Vivek alias Balan, the State secretary of CPI (Maoist) was arrested from Shenoy Nagar on that day.

But her luck ran out in July last year, when the special anti-Naxal force from Andhra Pradesh picked her up from a train that she was travelling on. Police said the arrest came near Chennimalai in Erode district while she was heading to Hyderabad from Kerala. But she was released on bail, and remained at large since then.

In January, she was declared as a proclaimed offender. On Friday, nearly a year later, Padma appeared before the bomb blast special court judge Senthur Pandi.

Said to be a member of the women empowerment wing of the ultra-left outfit, Padma was arrested by the Madhikonpalayam police in 2002 for allegedly providing weapons training for a group of Maoists at Uthangarai in Krishnagiri district.

Police believe that her husband Vivek, a diploma holder in technical engineering and an expert in arms, had shifted base to north India after coming out on bail. Vivek, who hails from Dindigul district, was providing arms training to Maoists in the forest areas of Periyakulam when they were surrounded in 2007, police said. In the encounter that followed, a few suspected Naxalites were killed, but Vivek escaped.