CPI (Maoist) zonal commander Jeevan Kandulna, who carried a reward of Rs10 lakh on his head and faces charges in 77 cases of major crimes, surrendered to Ranchi police on Sunday after almost a week-long negotiations with representatives of law enforcement agencies.

Kandulna, as per details shared by police, was accused in cases of murder, loot, rape, levy collection and involvement in Maoist activities lodged with various police stations across Jharkhand.

Police said more than 4,000 operations were conducted to nab Kandulna in the past 20 years, but he always managed to escape. Kandulna, originally a resident of Rania block of Khunti district, about 35 km south of Ranchi, was active in the Saranda jungles of West Singhbhum – the largest Sal forest of South East Asia. Police sources said that security forces were following his location and activities for over a year and mounting pressure on him to surrender.

Last week, a highly placed source in the police department had said that Kandulna was in talks with the police in captivity at an isolated place in the state capital and might surrender anytime soon. But many Maoist leaders, the official clarified, did not keep their promise of surrendering after talks with police. Police did not issue any official statement regarding his surrender while he was in talks with the government.

After surrendering before the police in Ranchi on Sunday, Kandulna urged fellow rebels to shun the gun and join the mainstream. “I was impressed with the new surrender policy. I appeal all my fellow rebels to take advantage of the surrender policy and start afresh,” he said.

Ranchi Senior SP S.K. Jha said that many rebels were still living in the far-flung jungles. “Many youths join Maoist groups after getting influenced by their ideologies. But eventually, right wins over wrong,” said Jha.

“All the provisions of the surrender policy for Left-Wing Extremists will be followed in his (Kandulna’s) rehabilitation in the mainstream, and we are expecting that more rebels will surrender after this,” he added.

Sources said that Kandulna had joined the outlawed CPI (Maoist) to avenge the killing of his sister by a splinter outfit years ago.

As per records with the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are Left Wing Extremism-affected. Besides the main CPI (Maoist), there are around 17 splinter outfits active in the tribal state.

The government has been working on framing better surrender policies in order to ensure more surrenders by insurgents. In 2017, Jharkhand’s one of the most infamous Maoist leaders, Kundan Pahan, a zonal commander, had surrendered and was given a warm welcome by police.