Pothula Padmavathi, alias Sujatha, a central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered before the Telangana Police on Saturday after being underground for more than four decades, The Indian Express reported.

The 62-year-old, who is the widow of Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, was in charge of the organisation’s South Sub-Zonal Bureau of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee.

Kishenji was killed in a gunfight with security forces in 2011.

Sujatha was wanted in connection with more than 70 cases filed in several districts of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region and carried a reward of Rs 40 lakh on her head, The Hindu reported.

P Sundarraj, inspector general of police for the Bastar range, told The Indian Express that Sujatha’s surrender came amid a power tussle within the banned outfit after its general secretary at the time, Basavaraju, was killed in May.

Basavaraju, who was described by the Union government as the “backbone of the Naxal movement”, was among 27 suspected Maoists killed in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur on May 21.

“After the death of [Basavaraju] a bitter power struggle rages among cadres – each desperate to grab the position and exploit the extortion money looted from innocent villagers,” the newspaper quoted Sundarraj as saying. “The same story is unfolding in Bastar.”

The police officer added that Sujata and another Maoist leader Ramachandra Reddy...

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