Bhubaneswar: Former Maoist leader and revolutionary writer Ganti Prasada Rao alias Prasadam, who was undergoing treatment sustaining bullet injuries, died at a hospital in Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of Friday. Prasadam was shot at by unidentified assailants on Thursday and injured critically. However, he succumbed to his injuries at Narayana hospital in Nellore, police said.Family sources said, his body will be taken to his native village, Bobbli of Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh 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.
Notably, the top Maoist leader was released in 2011 along with some other Maoists in exchange for the release of then collector of Odisha’s Malkangiri district R. V. Krishna from the captivity of the Maoists.