Surrendered Maoist couple: ‘Rehab policy ensures those coming from jungles don’t regret decision’

Asin and his wife Anju Sulya Jale (28) alias Sonia — both of whom surrendered in 2024 — spoke to The Indian Express on their life in the jungles, the mentorship they got from Bhupati, and their decision to lay down arms.

The beginning

Asin was in Class 9 when he left his home in Narwana, Haryana, to join the Naxals. After the Ghaso incident of 2005, when a clash between Jats and Dalits led to around 50 Dalit houses in the village being burned and looted, Asin went underground. The Krantikari Mazdoor Kisan Union and the Jagruk Chhatra Morcha, the student wing of the Maoists with which he was associated, had allegedly organised an event in support of the Dalits, prompting authorities to take action.

“The next year, in 2006, I left Haryana and came to Maad (Abujhmad, Chhattisgarh). I was in Class 11 then and had discontinued my education,” he says.

Asin, who worked with the Maoists’ press team from 2006 to 2018, initially worked at D K Prabhat Press in Dandakaranya and, after 2013, joined Jansangram Press in Odisha. He then spent two years with the party’s military wing in Gadchiroli, Company 10, where he focused on laws related to panchayats and the Forest Rights Act.

Anju, who is from Gadchiroli, dropped out of school after Class 7. She joined the Maoist organisation in 2007 as an aide to commander Dinkar and worked as a teacher at a ‘Janatana Sarkar’ school in Ghamandi village in Maad. Asin and Anju were later part of the same press team in Maad.

The couple have two encounter cases each against them and carried bounties on their heads — Rs 6 lakh for Asin and Rs 2 lakh for Anju. They lived in Odisha and later Himachal Pradesh under assumed identities before surrendering to the Gadchiroli Police and CRPF officials in 2024.

A mentor in Bhupati

As children in the forests, without the safety net of family and parents, Anju and Asin say it was Bhupati who stepped in for them. “He cared so deeply for us they we never felt the absence of parents or family. Other Central Committee members would say, “Baccho ko bigaad ke rakkha hai (Bhupati spoils the children),” says Asin.

Anju was around 15 when she met Bhupati in the Maad dalam in the forests of Abujhmad in 2008. “My childhood was spent with him… Around him, I always felt, this is how a father should be,” she says, adding she got little love or care from her own family.

Asin says he worked closely with Bhupati from 2008-2013. “In the early days, I handled his Internet-related work, including sending press releases by e-mail and liaising with external contacts on his behalf,” he says.

Bhupati’s mentorship, he says, was strategic. “He understood that strong relationships were essential for the movement,” he says.

As a senior leader who oversaw the Central Regional Bloc (CRB) covering Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Telangana, Bhupati’s role involved extensive travel across these states. He often visited Abujhmad in northern Bastar and Gadchiroli, where he worked closely with local teams and occasionally met the press.

On reports that Bhupati was disillusioned after the CPI (Maoist) leadership chose another leader, Devuji, as General Secretary following the encounter of then chief Basavaraju in May 2025, Asin says, “He would not have obstructed Devuji’s elevation to general secretary. On the contrary, given his stature as party spokesman and an accepted leader, he would likely have been instrumental in any such nomination.”

The couple, who speak fluent English and Hindi, credit Bhupati and their training in reading and writing while in the forests.

“Every day, he would dedicate an hour to teaching me,” says Anju.

When they met

Bhupati also played a part in bringing the couple together. Asin says he proposed marriage to Anju in 2012, but she hesitated. “I used to visit Sonu dada (Bhupati) for work often. Back then, she was in his Maad dalam. I really liked her,” says Asin. However, Anju was sceptical. “Asin was more educated than me…. I felt he might leave me,” says Anju

Bhupati played go-between for the two. “He convinced me that Asin was a really good person and would stay by me, even in tough situations. He then arranged our marriage in 2013,” Anju recalls.

Surrender and a new beginning

On his decision to surrender, Asin says years of living underground in Himachal Pradesh gave him the distance he needed to reflect on his beliefs. He read widely and started writing and sharing his thoughts on social media and several other platforms. He says it was then that he realised the futility of violence. “Over the last 75 years, no socialist revolution has succeeded through violence. In fact, the Constitution provides solutions to most problems,” he says.

Bhupati too understood this, says Asin, adding that his mindset shifted after 2020, when he began stressing on constitutional and mass organisation over military action. “Sonu dada can in fact serve as an intellectual counter to ultra-left extremism,” he says.

Asin and Anju surrendered in 2024. Asin now works at Lloyds Metals as a supervisor in the public relations section at their plant in Gadchiroli. “Employment opportunities like these make surrender attractive. Cadres know they will have jobs, homes, and a chance to reintegrate into society,” Asin said.

Anju says she hopes to continue her studies further. She is also part of a literacy programme conducted by the Gadchiroli Police for surrendered Naxals.

Praising the government’s surrender policy and welfare initiatives by Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police Neelotpal, Asin says, “People coming from the jungle are extremely poor. Giving free plots and housing ensures they don’t regret surrendering. It provides livelihoods and removes the need for weapons.