The year 2017 began on a troubled note for both the Centre and then Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh.
In the eye of the storm was the then Bastar police chief, owing to his run-ins with journalists and rights activists.
Chhattisgarh government wanted a change in leadership and approach, without easing pressure on the Maoists.
It was against this backdrop that The state’s security apparatus called an emergency meeting at the police HQ.
Those present included then additional chief secretary (home) B.V.R Subrahmanyam, DGP A.N.
The trio zeroed in on IPS officer Sundarraj Pattilingam, who had worked as DIG in South Bastar and with the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), both critical components in the fight against Left Wing Extremism (LWE).
The Chhattisgarh cadre IPS officer of the 2003 batch was known in bureaucratic circles as a “tough man” who didn’t respond to scrutiny with a “combative approach”.
By the time of his appointment, Pattilingam had charge of Bastar police before IPS Vivekanand Sinha took over as IG in April 2017.
Sinha moved on to become ADG (ANO) in 2019, vacating the post of IG (Bastar), which Sundarraj has held since.
Both officers were felicitated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Jagdalpur last month as he formally declared the end of Maoism in India.
Shah also heaped praise on officers deployed across LWE-affected states, namely Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh for dismantling the Maoist movement, either through encounters or by facilitating the surrender of Maoist cadres.
Looks at some of their stories and how they played key roles in drawing the curtains of armed Maoism in India.
