Raipur : The killing of a former Maoist, Korsa Joga alias Shivaji, who worked as a police informer, by rebels in Bijapur last week is probably the most tragic end of a Maoist love story. It also highlights the failure of the Chhattisgarh government to provide rehabilitation and security to Maoists who surrender.
Ever since his surrender in March 2013, Joga wanted to begin a family with his schoolteacher wife and had even undergone reverse vasectomy to become a father. He was the topmost Chhattisgarh Maoist to have ever surrendered, but all he got as rehabilitation was a temporary job of a Gopniya Sainik (police informer), a task that endangered his life and defeated the purpose of surrender. He remained a “high-risk target” and an officer termed his death as a “major loss of an invaluable asset”. He was killed just 3 km from the Bijapur district headquarters on Thursday.
A resident of Bijapur, Joga joined the Maoists in 2002, went on to become the ‘Military Intelligence’ chief of the West Bastar Division Committee but secretly left the outfit on February 1, 2013 and fled with Varalaxmi Korsa, whom he had met in a village school.
Both crossed a river to reach Andhra Pradesh and then went to Karnataka. “We thought the money was enough for us to begin a new life, find some work and buy a home. We were fools,” the couple had earlier told The Indian Express. The money — and the honeymoon — soon ended and they returned after the police arrested them and showed it as surrender.
Like Joga, Sanjay Potam alias Badru is also among the top “surrendered” cadres. A member of the powerful Darbha Division Committee of the Maoists, Badru left the party with comrade wife Sukki in February 2013. He was living a family life in a Bijapur village before he surrendered in November 2013 following police promise of benefits. Badru is entitled to cash rewards worth Rs 9 lakh besides a home and job. All he has received is the “Protsahan Rashi” of Rs 5,000, a year later in November 2014. Sukki became a mother in between, but they still live in Dantewada police lines. She was given a Class IV job at a school some months ago, but is yet to be paid salary.
“Bole hain vetan ke liye kuch kuch banana padta hai (We have been told some formalities have to be completed for the salary),” said Badru, who was recently made a Gopniya Sainik. “They should make me at least a constable.”
Living in police lines has marked the couple out as “enemy” for the Maoists as they live with 24X7 police guards. “I am now concerned about my baby,” said Sukki.
