Top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, who is facing trial in several cases of murder and sabotage, was released on bail from Visakhapatnam central prison on Tuesday night.

According to official sources, 66-year-old ideologue of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) secured bail in the multiple cases pending against him in various cities, including Visakhapatnam.

He immediately left for his native place Mumbai after coming out of the jail, sources said.

Ghandy, who used several alias like Aravind, Saleem, Kamal and Azad, was arrested by Andhra Pradesh police from New Delhi in 2009.

He was earlier lodged in Cherlapalli central jail on the outskirt of Hyderabad for three months in connection with the assassination of former Congress MLA Chittem Narsi Reddy in August 2005. Prior to that he spent seven years in Tihar jail in Delhi. He had been in Visakhapatnam jail since April 4 this year.

The former central committee member of the CPI(Maoist) is also an accused in the murder of former Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker D Sripada Rao at Manthani in Karimnagar district in 1999.

The Maoist leader has been suffering from multiple ailments, including cancer of prostrate, over the past few years, sources said.

Ghandy, who studied in prestigious Doon School in Dehradun and Elphinstone College, Mumbai, joined Naxalite politics in late 1960s. During the 1980s, he became one of the leading organisers of the newly formed CPI(ML)(People’s War) group in Maharashtra.

An official said that Ghandy was acquitted in four cases and was granted bail in the remaining two cases. He was assisted by a lawyer after he was released from prison late in the evening to fly to Mumbai.

Ghandy, who was Central Committee member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), was suffering from kidney ailments, prostrate cancer, high blood pressure, back problem, heart ailment and was generally unwell for several months, officials said.

After his arrest by the Andhra Pradesh police, he was lodged at Cherlapally Central Jail in connection with a case against him for the murder of former Congress MLA C Narsi Reddy in August 2005. He is also an accused in the murder of former Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker D Sripad Rao in 1999.

Most of the cases against him were under the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Officials said that police failed to file chargesheets in cases against him in Andhra Pradesh.

When he was arrested in September 2009, Ghandy was also accused of trying to establish a network of CPI (Maoist) in New Delhi. He was acquitted of terror charges by Delhi’s Patiala House Court in June 2016.

Ghandy, a product of Doon School in Dehradun and Elphinstone College, Mumbai, joined Maoist politics in late 1960s.

He was one of the leading members of the CPI(ML) (People’s War) group in Maharashtra and has been a CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member since 2004, after the People’s War merged with the Maoist Communist Centre.

He has been part of the central committee and politburo of the CPI(Maoist) since its inception in 2004.

(With inputs from Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Kolkata)

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