Former Maoist leader Ganti Prasadam dead

Hyderabad, July 5: Former Maoist leader Ganti Prasada Rao alias Prasadam, who was shot at and critically injured by unidentified people in Nellore on Thursday, succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of Friday, police said.

Ganti Prasadam, as he was popularly known, died while undergoing treatment at Narayana Hospital in Nellore town, about 500 km from here. He was 50.

The body was sent for autopsy. His family members said that the body would be taken to his native place Bobbili in Srikakulam district for last rites.

Prasadam was a poet and convenor of the Martyr's Committee of Friends and Relatives, a group representing kin of Maoists killed in shoot-outs with police.

He was released in 2011, along with some other Maoists, in exchange for the release of the then collector of Odisha's Malkangiri district R. V. Krishna from the captivity of the Maoists.

IANS