DGP denies police nexus with ex-naxals

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 16. A former naxalite belonging to the People's War Group (PWG), Kattula Sammaiah, 28, injured critically in the Colombo airport on Wednesday last after an aborted take-off of a Sri Lankan Airlines flight, died at the National Hospital there on Sunday night. His wife, who rushed to Colombo, was beside him when he breathed his last.

Sammaiah, hailing from Kachapur in Karimnagar district, was said to be flying to Frankfurt in Germany from Colombo along with five others for a proposed windmill project. On noticing smoke inside the cabin even as the plane was taxiing for the take-off, the captain declared an emergency and decided to evacuate the passengers. In the evacuation process, Sammaiah received a serious head injury.

A press statement released here on Monday on behalf of the Director-General of Police, Mr. H. J. Dora, clarified that ``there was no truth in the allegation that the son of the Inspector- General of Police (Rayalaseema) was with Kattula Sammaiah or that he had any business dealings with him. There is also no truth that the police have sent Sammaiah for training in aerial warfare.''

The statement said that surrendered naxalites were not being used by the police in any manner except overseeing their rehabilitation. ``There is absolutely no nexus between the police and former naxalites,'' it said.

Once a key functionary of the banned PWG, Kattula Sammaiah worked with the Huzurabad dalam. He was one of the persons involved in the killing of the then DIG of Hyderabad, K.S. Vyas, in 1993 inside the Lal Bahadur stadium. Later, he fell out with his squad commander Yellaiah alias Bhupathi when the latter allegedly attempted to sexually harass his wife, also a naxalite.

Though Sammaiah brought this incident to the notice of the PWG's Karimnagar District Committee, no action was taken. In a revenge act, he killed his squad commander and two other naxalites and escaped with his wife and weapons. He surrendered before the SP of Karimnagar.

The PWG, however, targeted him for the murder of his colleagues. Realising the danger, Sammaiah himself approached the court and turned an approver. He lived in Kerala for a year before settling down in the city starting some business. He is also known to have associated with the police in several anti-extremist operations.

Sammaiah was arrested by the Nellore police when he was allegedly committing highway dacoities four years ago. Two years ago, the PWG had planned to eliminate him but it did not succeed. He then called a news conference to openly challenge the PWG that he would unite all the surrendered naxalites to fight the underground outfit. In fact, he along with many other surrendered naxalites like Jadala Nagaraju, Nayeemuddin and Bayapu Satya Reddy - all marked by the PWG - took up arms again to fight it with the active support of the police.

The renegade naxalite is said to have obtained a passport here in February earlier this year. He and five other companions boarded a Singapore Airlines flight from Chennai and landed in Colombo on the night of April 10.

The DGP's office also released the names of the five other persons said to be travelling with Sammaiah. They were: Mr. S. Bhaskaran, Mr. A. Abubaker, Mr. D. Ganesan, Mr. Abdul Haque (all from Chennai) and Mr. S. Nazer Hussain, who hails from Vijayawada.

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