BHOPAL: The surrender of two wanted female naxal cadres in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh within five days earlier this month may prove crucial to the ongoing operations aimed at eliminating left-wing extremism (LWE) from Madhya Pradesh by March 2026.

On 1 November, a 22-year-old naxal cadre identified as Sunita, who carried a bounty of Rs 14 lakh on her head and was armed with an INSAS rifle, surrendered before the police in Balaghat district of MP.

Five days later, on 6 November, another wanted female naxal, identified as Kamla Sodi alias Taruna, who carried a bounty of Rs 17 lakh on her head, surrendered before the police in Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai district.

Both women, who hail from Chhattisgarh, had been active in the dense forests of Madhya Pradesh, particularly in the tri-junction of Balaghat (MP), Gondia (Maharashtra) and Rajnandgaon (Chhattisgarh), which forms the core of the CPI (Maoist) Maharashtra-MP-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone.

According to sources, the two surrendered cadres possess vital information about 40-50 armed naxals, around half of them women, currently operating across three to four dalams (armed groups) of the CPI (Maoist) in MP’s Balaghat and Mandla districts.

Credible sources connected to MP Police’s anti-naxal operations said information given by Sunita has “put a stamp of approval” on intelligence regarding the presence of a highly dangerous group of 11-12 armed cadres led by central committee member (CCM) Ramder in MP and neighbouring jungles since early 2015.

“Aged around 58 years, Ramder was actually assigned the responsibility of heading the MMC zone by 2024-end and has been active since early 2025 in the region. It has now been revealed that the same group had killed the 25-year-old youth Devendra Yadav, on the suspicion of being a police informer in Balaghat district in September,” sources claimed.

Following Sunita’s surrender, the group headed by Ramder had at least four female cadres left. Sunita was one of the two bodyguards of the group’s head. “A few months back, we had got evidence about the presence of Ramder in the jungles of Balaghat, but it has been fully confirmed after Sunita’s surrender.”