Ganti Prasadam, former Maoist state committee leader and Amara Veeerula Bandumitrula Sangham state secretary, suffered bullet injuries after he was shot at by three unidentified persons at Nellore, in Andhra Pradesh, police said.
The assailants shot at and also stabbed Prasadam near government hospital at about 2:30 PM, causing injuries to him, they said, adding that the reason behind the incident was being probed.
Prasadam was shifted to a nearby hospital where his condition was stated to be stable, a senior police officer said.
Prasadam, a "close associate" of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK, was released from a Orissa jail in 2011 as part of conditions for safe release of abducted Malkangiri Collector R V Krishna.
Prasad was an underground cadre of erstwhile Peoples War Group and was arrested by Orissa police in November 2010, oficials said.