From farming village to forest: Life and death of Maoist leader Loketi Chandra Rao

By Harsh Thakor* 

Seven Maoist cadres, including Loketi Chandra Rao alias Prabhakar of Kamareddy district in Telangana, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. A police officer was also injured in the incident. Special anti-Naxal forces along with local police had been conducting combing operations in the Gadchiroli forest area for three days prior to the encounter.

An exchange of fire took place between the two sides, resulting in the deaths of seven Maoists. Three bodies were recovered by the forces on Thursday night and four more were found the following Friday. Gadchiroli Maoist Division Committee in-charge Prabhakar, also known as Loketi Chandra Rao, was identified among the dead. Police stated that a reward of twenty-five lakh rupees had been announced for him and that efforts were underway to identify the remaining deceased.

Loketi Chandra Rao, also known by the party name Swami, had been working under the alias Prabhakar. He had remained underground since 1995. It had been reported that pressure from Operation Kagar had led to expectations that he might surrender, but he continued his involvement with the movement until his death.

Loketi Chandra was born in 1969 in Isrojivadi village, Sadasivanagar Mandal, Kamareddy district, Telangana, to a poor farming family. His father was Veeranna and his mother Kishtabai. He was the youngest of four children, growing up alongside his sister Gangabai and brothers Rajeshwar Rao and Manik Rao. The family belonged to the SC/ST community and depended on agriculture for their livelihood. His formal education extended only to the sixth grade.

He married Sulochana of Sangojivadi village at the age of sixteen. Sulochana was the eldest daughter of Ayala Shyamrao and Rambai. The couple had three children. Their first daughter, Rajitha, born in 1987, was disabled from birth and died of illness in 1999 at the age of thirteen. Their second daughter, Lavanya, also known as Sandhya, was born in 1989, and their son Ramesh was born in 1991.

Loketi Chandra's father Veeranna died in 1996, six years after he had joined the revolutionary movement, and his mother Kishtabai died in February 2022, thirty-one years after he went underground. He had last seen his parents in person in 1995 at a protest gathering. News of their deaths reached him through newspaper reports.

Sulochana, his wife, also joined the movement for a period, working under the name Navatha. Their children Ramesh and Lavanya were raised by relatives, before both of them also joined the movement in 2005. Sulochana died of illness eight years before his own death. Funeral rites were conducted in accordance with the customs observed within the movement. His daughter Lavanya was reported to be in Chhattisgarh's Ariste jail six months prior to this incident. His son Ramesh surrendered to police on December 2. At the time of his death, Loketi Chandra Rao was serving as a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee under the alias Prabhakar and as West Sub-Zonal Bureau Secretary.

Loketi Chandra first became involved with the Radical Youth League in 1986 and was appointed village RYL president. He had informally participated in RYL programmes for approximately two years before that. During the period between 1986 and 1991, he was involved in various local campaigns, including efforts to reclaim SC/ST lands occupied by landlords, demands for increased wages for agricultural labourers, fair prices for farmers, and consistent electricity supply. He also participated in relief collection for victims of the 1990 floods and in the conduct of public hearings on local grievances.

During this period, landlords and police conducted operations in the village, arresting more than a hundred people from approximately three hundred families. The arrested individuals were released within twenty-four hours following sustained pressure from the local community. Loketi Chandra subsequently went underground and joined the movement as a full-time cadre from April 1991.

Over the following years he held various organisational roles, from member to force commander and district committee member in the Kamareddy, Sircilla and Sirnapalli areas. He moved to the Dandakaranya region in 2003, where he went on to serve as commander, secretary, and bureau in-charge across the South and West Sub-Zones. Between 1993 and 2009, he was reportedly involved in a series of armed actions in areas including Sirnapalli, Papannapet, and Rani Bodil, and is said to have escaped several major counter-insurgency operations during this period.

His funeral was held on February 6, 2026, at his native village of Isrojivadi, Kamareddy district. The proceedings were attended by family members, villagers, representatives of civil liberties organisations including VIRASAM, the Civil Rights Association, the Telangana People's Front, the Dalit Liberation Front, left political parties, trade unions, and others associated with progressive movements. The funeral concluded in the late afternoon.

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*Freelance journalist