The death of a naxalite

Waiting in a serpentine queue at a polling centre in Gadchiroli the harsh April summer burning her skin 33yearold Sandhya Madavi name changed a former naxal commander doesnt want to take this privilege for granted After years of facing the ignominy of being labelled a desh drohi she finally has the chance to prove her allegiance to the state as a firsttime voterSandhya was only 17 when she gunned down a cop It was also the first time that she found herself in a crossfire in the wilderness of Gadchiroli I emptied all the rounds in my AK47 magazine One of the bullets pierced through a policemans chest and he fell to the ground right in front of me she recalls I managed to escape into the jungles But after that incident I did not sleep or eat for two daysGattepalli which is 29 km from Gadchiroli is among the many villages that have witnessed unrest due to naxal infiltrationIn 2014 over a decade after working for the naxals Madavi along with her husband and hundreds of others surrendered to the police under the Naxals Surrender and Rehabilitation Policy Its been over five years since she chose the country over her cause but Sandhya and her family continue to live in fear We cannot go back to our village and cannot speak openly about our past she says Still picking up the pieces Sandhya speaks of naxalism and the life afterSandhya hails from a remote village bordering Chhattisgarh where she lived with her parents and six siblings two sisters and four brothers Her parents were farmers and like most poor families in the village struggled to make ends meet Sandhya who hoped for a way out of this rut found naxalism as a means to achieve freedomA few naxals would visit our village and keep pushing us to join their cause They said wed get freedom I was drawn to their ideology of treating everyone equally They did not believe in the government and held it responsible for the growing divide between the haves and havenotsSearch for freedomIn 2002 when Sandhya was still in Class VII along with her friend Radhika name changed she left home to join the naxals The initial days in the jungle where they camped were not easy says Sandhya We would walk for hours together in dalams small groups of 20 people led by a squad commander Our legs would ache from all that walking Sometimes wed go without food and water for days We were scared and wanted to return home but feared getting killedTheir mission involved gaining the confidence of the tribal people and distributing literature and other written material to them to reinstate that the government was their dushman The other tasks involved burying bullets and magazines in pits inside the forests We marked the area with a sign on the tree and would go back to the spot to collect the same when required she saysThe naxals communicated mostly in Gondi and Madia the language of the locals We were given R2 lakh every year which was distributed among 20 members for buying toiletries and other personal items We also had laptops and printers inside the jungle which were used to print naxal literatureThe training was also rigorous Wed wake up around 4 am and get ready to be on the ground by 6 am Our superiors taught us to handle various weapons right from a 12bore gun to 303 rifle and AK47 We were also trained in unarmed combat and martial arts she says adding that she also learned how to make explosives using gun powder detonators and other locallysourced materialApart from this the members were also trained in emergency medical assistance by qualified doctors and surgeons who had joined the movementThe big fightOne of her first shooting operations was in 2003 when Sandhya killed a policeman While that incident scarred her it also helped her get over the fear of death After that I took part in nearly 10 operations in Balaghat and Melghat she saysAt Balaghat a foodgrain godown was attacked by the naxals We looted the grains rice wheat and oil and distributed it to the nearby tribal villages During the 2009 election at Deori village in Gondia district Sandhya and her dalam members opened fire on the polling officials to prevent them from conducting elections thereThe election officials were forced to shift the polling station and only a few villagers from Deori went and voted as we had threatened them with dire consequences Similar attempts were made at Korchi in Gadchiroli where polling officials were fired uponAccording to Sandhya she was apprehended thrice by the police and C60 commandos In those days I used to carry a revolver with me To my luck they never examined me physically and allowed me to go she recallsFrom lal salam to tirangaSandhya met her future husband Ravi name changed in 2008 At the time I was his commander I remember how hed look for an excuse to talk to me Once I had even informed my superior about his behaviour It was only a year later that Ravi expressed his feelings for me We got married with the consent of our superiors The wedding was celebrated in a tribal village inside the forestIt was in 2012 sometime after her friend Radhika quit naxalism that Sandhyas husband suggested that they quit the movement I was not willing to give up the fight for freedom but my husband insisted that we should We both decided to leave the dalam and ran out of the jungle with our weapons she remembersThe couple took shelter in Ravis house in Gadchiroli and stayed there for a few months Two years later Ravis cousin a C60 commando convinced them to surrender As per the state governments surrender scheme Ravi and I received a decent sum along with a plot of land and house Sandhya had over six cases against her but thanks to the surrender policy she was absolved of all charges Today Ravi works as a watchman and is earning Rs 4000 monthly while I look after the houseThe only remorse Sandhya has is that she can never meet her parents in Chhattisgarh The villagers and naxals treat us as enemies and if our parents meet us or if we meet them its likely that they naxal will kill them too But this life she says is better than the one she had in the forest We sacrificed and risked too much in the name of ideologyCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates