Top Maoist leader RK 'safe, wife tells Hyderabad HC

Top Naxalite leader Ramakrishna's wife today informed the Hyderabad High Court that her husband is "safe" and sought the court's permission for withdrawal of the habeas corpus petition she filed earlier in this regard.
"We informed the high court that Ramakrishna is safe and said we got information last night that he is safe. We requested to permit us to withdraw the habeas corpus which is posted after two weeks," Kandula Sirisha told the court through her counsel V Raghunath.
As the matter was not posted for today, the high court asked the petitioner to make an application through Registrar (Judicial) seeking to withdraw the petition.

The matter is likely to come up for listing on Monday (November 7) and the court will pass an order in view of request by the petitioner.
In the wake of an exchange of fire on Andhra-Odisha border on October 24 in which 24 Maoists were killed, doubts were expressed by the wife of Ramakrishna alias RK and relatives and party comrades that he might be in police custody.
In the habeas corpus petition, Sirisha sought directions to the Andhra Pradesh government to produce the outlaw before the court and to record his statement for appropriate action.

Andhra Pradesh Police yesterday informed the high court that RK is not in their custody and following submission from the state police, the court had asked the petitioner, to produce before it any material with regard to him and posted the matter after two weeks.

A division bench of justices C V Nagarjuna Reddy and M S K Jaiswal had earlier directed the Andhra Pradesh government to file counter affidavit informing the court whether RK was in police custody or not, while hearing the habeas corpus plea filed last week by Sirisha.
Responding to the petition, Visakhapatnam Rural District Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma filed an affidavit before the court that RK, who is a member of the banned Central Committee of CPI (ML), is not in the custody of police.
The senior police officer further submitted that the incident of exchange of fire has occurred in the territory of Odisha state and requested the court to dismiss the petition.

RWA leader Varavara Rao called Telugu television news
channels over phone and announced that RK was "safe" but did not give any details about his whereabouts or condition.
The late night announcement brought to an end the 10-day- old suspense and anxiety over RK's state as there were allegations from Maoists' frontal organisations and civil liberties groups that he might have been killed by the police in the October 24 encounter on the Andhra-Odisha border.
Subsequently, these organisations alleged that RK was being held captive by the police and expressed apprehension that he too might be bumped off in a false encounter.