Cherukuri Rajkumar

Cherukuri Rajkumar (1952 – 1 July 2010), known by the alias Azad, was an Indian politician who was the spokesperson and one of the seniormost members of the Central Politburo of the banned Maoist group Communist Party of India (Maoist). On 1 July 2010, he was killed by Andhra Pradesh Police in an encounter.

Early life Rajkumar was born in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He is also the maternal first cousin of Progressive Organisation for Women (POW) president V Sandhya. He completed his school education from Sainik School Korukonda and graduated from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, the fountainhead of Left ideology in Andhra in the 1970s. He completed his MTech, from Andhra University College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam and became a leader of the Radical Students Union which was a breeding ground for many Naxalites. He was an ideologue who had specialised in field-craft as well. Azad was arrested in 1975 and 1978 and jumped bail, carrying a reward of Rs. 1.2 million on his head. He went underground in 1979. He was accused in the killing of Congress legislator C. Narsi Reddy along with 10 others in Mahbubnagar district on the 15th of August 2005. Apart from being a central committee member, he was also a member of the politburo — the highest policy-making body of the organization.

Encounter On 1 July 2010, Rajkumar was killed by the Andhra Pradesh Police in Jogapur forest area near Sarkapalli in Adilabad district of the state, near the border with Maharashtra. He was killed along with few others including journalist Hemchandra Pandey. Police also recovered an AK-47, a 9 mm pistol and rucksacks with food. As per the police the encounter started at around 10 pm on 30 June 2010 and continued till 3.30 am, the next day and that 20 Maoists were involved in the exchange of fire. Finally on 16 March 2012, after going through the report, Supreme Court concluded that the encounter was not a fake encounter. The Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun released a statement for the death of Azad, said that were an "example for the class struggle in the world".