2 Top Women Maoists Surrender, Their Secrets Could Reshape Anti-Maoism War

In a dramatic twist in India's war on Maoism, two most-wanted women Maoists, each carrying massive bounties and deep secrets, surrendered in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh within just five days. Their confessions, police said, could become the most decisive breakthrough in years as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh push to wipe out the Red Corridor footprint from the former by March.

On November 1, the usually quiet Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh witnessed a rare spectacle. Sunita, a 22-year-old Maoist guerilla armed with an INSAS rifle, walked out of the forest and surrendered. Sunita had a bounty of Rs 14 lakh.

Five days later, in the neighbouring Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai district of Chhattisgarh, another high-value Maoist, Kamla Sodi, alias Taruna, wanted with a Rs 17 lakh bounty, also surrendered.

READ: "Ghost Of Bastar": The Rise And Fall Of Maoist Leader Madvi Hidma

Both Sunita and Taruna came from Maoist strongholds in Chhattisgarh. 

They operated deep inside the tri-junction jungles of Balaghat (MP), Gondia (Maharashtra), and Rajnandgaon (Chhattisgarh), the strategic core of the dreaded MMC (Maharashtra-MP-Chhattisgarh) zone of the CPI (Maoist). And both now hold the keys to a maze of information on 40-50 armed cadres, nearly half of them women, still operating in MP's Balaghat-Mandla belt.

For security agencies, their surrender was nothing short of a goldmine. 

Sunita's Shocking Revelations

Top sources in Madhya Pradesh's anti-Maoist apparatus told NDTV that Sunita's interrogation confirmed the presence of a shadowy group of 11-12 heavily armed Maoists led by a central committee member named Ramder, who has been active in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra since 2015.

"Aged around 58, Ramder was expected to take full charge of the MMC zone by late 2024. Sunita confirmed this. She was one of his two personal bodyguards," sources revealed.

The same group, Sunita confessed, was behind the brutal killing of 25-

year-old Devendra Yadav in Balaghat this September, after labelling him a police informer.

With Sunita gone, Ramder reportedly has four female cadres left in his group, all of them armed and trained for jungle warfare. The group carries INSAS rifles, AK-47s, and Under Barrel Grenade Launchers (UBGLs), a serious threat to security teams navigating the dense terrain.

Perhaps the most shocking revelations came from Sunita's detailed disclosures. Behind the Maoist propaganda of gender equality lies a grim reality: women cadres are being treated as coolies, cooks, and sexual objects.

"They are repeatedly exploited by senior Maoist leaders," a senior officer said. "Earlier, escaping was impossible, because they feared being hunted down and executed. But the recent elimination of big Maoist commanders across Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and MP has emboldened many to surrender," the officer added. 

Sunita herself was forced into the movement by her Maoist cadre father in 2022. She faced repeated sexual abuse and was even insulted by Ramder, who accused her of having a relationship with another male cadre.

This deep unrest among women cadres, police believe, could trigger more high-value surrenders, a trend that may accelerate the collapse of the MMC zone structure.

A Look At Taruna's Past

The Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Police are now coordinating to interrogate Taruna, whose past is linked to one of this year's most decisive encounters.

Taruna was part of the Maoist unit that in June lost three women and a man in the fierce gunfight in Balaghat's Pachama Dadar forests. Each of the killed Maoists carried Rs 14 lakh bounties.

READ: 6 Maoists Carrying Rs 27 Lakh Bounty Killed In Chhattisgarh

That encounter not only wiped out a chunk of the Maoist fighting unit but also resulted in the recovery of an entire truck loaded with arms and ammunition. For the first time in nearly 35 years, the security forces breached the Maoist safehouse network in the infamously impenetrable Pachama Dadar region.

Taruna escaped that encounter, and her testimony now could blow open the movement patterns of the Darrekhasa, Malajkhand, and Tanda Area Committees, the spine of Maoist presence in Balaghat-Mandla.

The surrenders of Sunita and Taruna have electrified the security establishment. With Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh now jointly debriefing the two women, agencies are optimistic that the March deadline declared by Madhya Pradesh for becoming Naxal-free may no longer be a distant dream.