Maoist kingpin Sonu's last stand? Frontrunner to lead CPI (Maoist) set to surrender, shaking rebel ranks
, better known by his alias Sonu, a senior member of the CPI (Maoist) central committee and once considered a frontrunner to lead the banned outfit, is expected to surrender before
Gadchiroli police
, top officials in Maharashtra's
anti-Naxal operations
have told The Times of India.
The 69-year-old veteran insurgent, who holds a BCom degree and belongs to a Telugu Brahmin family, has reportedly grown weary of the struggle. Sonu had earlier appealed to the government for a ceasefire. According to the ToI report, his deteriorating physical condition and the shrinking influence of his armed group — particularly against elite forces like Maharashtra's C-60 commandos and Telangana's Greyhounds — are key reasons for the impending surrender.
Sonu is the elder brother of slain Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, who was killed in a 2011 encounter near Kolkata.
Play Video
Pause
Skip Backward
Skip Forward
Unmute
Current Time
0:00
/
Duration
0:00
Loaded
:
0%
0:00
Stream Type
LIVE
Seek to live, currently behind live
LIVE
Remaining Time
-
0:00
1x
Playback Rate
Chapters
Chapters
Descriptions
descriptions off
, selected
Captions
captions settings
, opens captions settings dialog
captions off
, selected
Audio Track
Picture-in-Picture
Fullscreen
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
Text
Color
White
Black
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Opaque
Semi-Transparent
Text Background
Color
Black
White
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Opaque
Semi-Transparent
Transparent
Caption Area Background
Color
Black
White
Red
Green
Blue
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan
Opacity
Transparent
Semi-Transparent
Opaque
Font Size
50%
75%
100%
125%
150%
175%
200%
300%
400%
Text Edge Style
None
Raised
Depressed
Uniform
Drop shadow
Font Family
Proportional Sans-Serif
Monospace Sans-Serif
Proportional Serif
Monospace Serif
Casual
Script
Small Caps
Reset
restore all settings to the default values
Done
Close Modal Dialog
End of dialog window.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
If you eat ginger every day for a month, your body will experience the following phenomena
Tips and Tricks
Sources cited by ToI suggest that Sonu could soon join his wife Tarakka, who surrendered before
Maharashtra Police
in late 2023 and is currently housed at a Gadchiroli police rehabilitation camp. On Thursday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis
hinted at an impending large-scale surrender in the region — interpreted by officials as a reference to Sonu and his group.
'Sonu is likely holed up in the Abujmarh forested hillocks. He saw the end coming a month ago and called for a truce,' an unnamed official told ToI. Security personnel said cadres should surrender soon, warning that the Maoist stronghold is rapidly collapsing. 'Forces are prodding deeper and moving fast. The guerrillas are under siege,' a senior officer said.
Live Events
Although names like Sonu and his comrade Thippiri Tirupati alias Devji (60) have surfaced as possible successors to the late general secretary Basavaraju, intelligence agencies cited by ToI believe neither has the capacity to lead — especially Sonu, given his age and apparent openness to peace.
The report also highlights growing discontent within lower-rung tribal cadres, particularly against the Telugu-speaking leadership of the CPI (Maoist). 'There is deep resentment about how the tribal fighters are treated — being pushed into the frontlines or forced into menial work,' a security official who had interrogated a surrendered cadre told ToI.
With morale low and leadership crumbling, sources told the paper that a wider exodus from the Maoist ranks may be imminent. The official added, 'The Telugu hierarchy will never allow tribal cadres to lead, even if they do the fighting. That rigidity has brought them to the brink.'
With inputs from ToI
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
22 minutes ago
- NDTV
Explained: What Constitutes Ragging And Why UGC Is Cracking Down On Non-Compliance
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has once again reminded all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the country of their legal and moral responsibility to ensure a ragging-free campus environment. In view of rising concerns about student safety and mental well-being, the Commission has issued a fresh advisory urging institutions to strictly follow anti-ragging regulations and submit compliance details at What Is Ragging? Ragging is not limited to physical harassment. It covers a wide range of actions-verbal, emotional, and psychological-that cause discomfort, fear, or humiliation to a student. Here's what's ragging: Mockery or Insult: If any student, through spoken or written words or actions, insults, mocks, or behaves inappropriately with a new or fellow student, it amounts to ragging. Forced Actions: Asking a student to perform acts they are not comfortable with-or wouldn't ordinarily do-that result in shame, pain, or emotional distress is considered ragging. Intimidation or Threats: Any disorderly or undisciplined activity that causes inconvenience, fear, physical or mental harm to another student also falls under ragging. Disruption of Academic Activities: If a senior student's behaviour hampers the academic routine or learning of another student, that too qualifies as ragging. UGC's Message: Zero tolerance, full compliance The UGC mandates every institution to implement its 2009 Anti-Ragging Regulation in both letter and spirit. This includes obtaining online undertakings from all students and submitting an institutional compliance report at the beginning of every academic year. The UGC has already begun issuing show cause notices to defaulting institutions.
Time of India
27 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump aims to shut trade loopholes China uses to evade tariffs
US President Donald Trump's two-tiered trade deal with Vietnam aims squarely at practices China has long used to skirt US tariffs: The widespread legal shifting of production to Southeast Asian factories and the murkier and illegal 'origin washing' of exports through their ports. The agreement slaps a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40% levy on goods deemed to be transshipped through the country. With details still scarce, economists said much will hinge on the framework Washington establishes to determine what it sees as 'Made in Vietnam' and what it sees as transshipments. Complicating matters is the fact that Chinese businesses have rushed to set up shop across Southeast Asia since Trump launched his first trade war back in 2018. The lion's share of Vietnam's exports to the US are goods like Airpods, phones or other products assembled with Chinese components in a factory in Vietnam and then shipped to America. That's not illegal. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 Top Trending local enterprise accounting software [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo Also Read: Beijing wary as US plots quiet trade war to isolate China; India in negotiation room 'A lot will depend on how the 40% tariffs are applied. If the Trump administration keeps it targeted, it should be manageable,' said Roland Rajah, lead economist at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. 'If the approach is too broad and blunt, then it could be quite damaging' for China, Vietnam and for the US, which will have to pay higher import prices, he said. Live Events The think tank estimates that 28% of Vietnamese exports to the US were made up of Chinese content in 2022, up from 9% in 2018. Pham Luu Hung, chief economist at SSI Securities Corp. in Hanoi, said a 40% levy on transshipped goods would have limited impact on Vietnam's economy because they aren't of Vietnamese origin in the first place. Re-routed exports accounted for just 16.5% of Vietnam's shipments to the US in 2021, a share that's likely declined over the past couple of years amid stronger enforcement actions by both governments, Hung said. 'An important caveat is that the rules of origin remain under negotiation,' Hung said. 'In practice, these rules may have a greater impact than the tariff rates themselves.' Devil in Details Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he's skeptical the latest deal will be effective in stamping out Chinese exports via Vietnam to the US. 'The devil is in the details, but I think China's exports will either go via other markets to the US, or some value-added will be done in Vietnam so the product counts as made in Vietnam, rather than a transshipment,' he said. As officials across Asia rushed to negotiate lower US tariff levels with their US counterparts this year, Chinese businesses have been just as quick to ramp up their exports through alternative channels in order to skirt punitive US levies. Shipments from China to Southeast Asia have reached record highs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam this year. And there's been a 'significant increase in correlation' to the region's increase in exports to the US during the same period, Citigroup Inc. economists said in a recent report. Bloomberg Much of that is likely due to the shifting of legitimate production across the region. Goods destined for the US market may be sent from their factories in Southeast Asia, and what they make in their factories in China will be sent to the rest of the world, said Derrick Kam, Asia economist at Morgan Stanley. 'If you try to represent that in the trade data, it will look exactly like rerouting, but it's not,' Kam said. 'It's essentially the supply chain working itself out.' But it's transshipment that's been a major concern for Trump's top trade advisers including Peter Navarro, who described Vietnam as 'essentially a colony of communist China' during an April interview with Fox News. And it's not just been happening in Vietnam. Not long after Trump unveiled his 'Liberation Day' tariffs on April 2, garment makers in Indonesia started receiving offers from Chinese companies to be 'partners in transshipment,' said Redma Gita Wirawasta, chairman of the Indonesian Filament Yarn and Fiber Producers Association. Chinese products would be rerouted to Indonesia, undergo minimal processing like repacking or relabeling, then secure a certification that they were made in the Southeast Asian country, Wirawasta said. Bloomberg When the goods are then exported to the US, they'd be subject to the 10% universal levy that Trump has imposed on nearly all countries, instead of the tariff for China that still equates to an effective level of over 50%, even after a recent 'deal' that lowered levies from a peak of 145%. With the huge scope for arbitrage, coupled with little policing, that process will prove tough to stamp out. 'Chinese exporters and their affiliates and partners in Southeast Asia are highly skilled at adapting to changing rules, identifying loopholes, and sometimes overstating the extent of value-add by non-China countries,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director at advisory firm Teneo Holdings LLC in New York. Some final assembly or transshipment may shift to rival Southeast Asian transshipment hubs like Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore, or farther afield to Turkey, Hungary or Poland, Wildau said. 'Another possibility is that the definitions and enforcement mechanisms are fuzzy, rendering the latest deal cosmetic and toothless,' he said. 'Rigorous enforcement would also require a significant boost of resources to enable US customs to verify compliance with the tougher rules of origin.' There have been efforts across the region to at least be seen to be making an effort to curb the practice. Indeed, Vietnam has made a big deal about cracking down on trade fraud and illegal activity in recent months. In April, South Korea said it seized more than $20 million worth of goods with falsified origin labels — the majority of which were destined for the US. The Airfreight Forwarders Association of Malaysia issued a warning in May as Chinese brokers promoted illegal rerouting services on social media. Malaysia has centralized the issuance of certificates of origin with its Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, while tapping its customs agency to help curb transshipment. Thailand has expanded its watch list for high-risk products, including solar panels, cars and parts, and is mulling stricter penalties for violators. Red Tape Casey Barnett, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, is already seeing the changes in action. One factory that exports to major US retailers, including Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's, said that customs officials were very carefully reviewing their products before being sent to the US, he said. 'It's creating some additional paperwork and a little bit of red tape here,' Barnett said. A senior manager at a logistics company in Cambodia, who asked not to be identified because the matter is sensitive, said export processing time has now stretched to as much as 14 working days — double what it was before. But in Indonesia, getting a certificate of origin is fairly quick and painless when goods are marked for export, often just requiring a product list and a letter to the provincial trade office, according to Wirawasta. Authorities prioritize checking products that enter the country to ensure they pay the right duties and comply with regulations, he explained. It's rare for them to inspect factories where an export good was supposedly made. So much so that sometimes, Chinese companies don't even need to muster up some local processing. 'The T-shirt could be finished in China, with a 'Made in Indonesia' label already sewn on,' Wirawasta said. 'Some traders won't even bother to unload the goods from the shipping container,' he added. 'Unloading costs money.'
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Who is Diogo Jota's wife Rute Cardoso? The duo got married just 10 days before the footballer died in car crash
Diogo José Teixeira da Silva, the 28-year-old Portuguese and Liverpool forward/left winger better known as Diogo Jota , died in a tragic car crash in Pain on Thursday along with his brother Andre Filipe da Silva , also a professional footballer with Penafiel. Diogo had married his childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso just days back on June 22, 2025, after the birth of their third child. Rute, 28, and Diogo started dating when they were just 13, studying together at a high school in Porto in 2012. An avid football fan, Rute regularly watched Diogo play for Liverpool and Portugal. She was often spotted wearing a football jersey with Diogo's name and his number 20. The couple had three children - Dinis, a son born in 2021 and two daughters born in 2023 and 2024. While the elder daughter is named Duarte, they never revealed the name of their youngest child. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Delhi Mosquito Problem? Do This Immediately (Genius!) Mosquito Eliminator Read More Undo They decided to get married following the birth of their youngest daughter. They were in July 2022 and had their wedding in their hometown of Porto just 10 days back. Rute is active in Instagram , regularly posting photos and videos of the family and from the stadiums where Diogo played. Live Events How Diogo and Andre Silva died Diogo and Andre were travelling in a Lamborghini on June 3 when the tragedy struck at around 00:40 CEST. The car crash took place at kilometer 65 of the A-52, in Zamorana region of Sanabria, as they tried to overtake another vehicle at high speed. The car suffered a tyre blowout , ran off the road and caught fire. The fire was so intense that rescue was impossible. Both Diogo and Andre were killed instantly according to the rescuers of the Spanish Civil Guard, who rushed to the crash site after receiving a call on 112 from the eye witnesses.
