Police help former woman Maoist lead dignified life

Disillusioned with wielding sophisticated weapons and fighting for dreaded Maoist Kundan Pahan group for years, former woman rebel Rashmi Mahali is now in a new role -- owning a tea stall inaugurated by Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Vinay Kumar Choubey and district police chief here.
"I surrendered a couple of years ago after realising that violence will not take us anywhere, but to ruin. I didn't want my eight-year-old little son under the shadow of violence in the forests," Mahali told reporters today at her newly established stall in the premises of the office of the Deputy Commissioner.
"The surrendered naxal Rashmi Mahali has formally been given space for a tea stall in the Collectorate, and was inaugurated on the Independence Day," Senior Superintendent of Police Saket Kumar Singh said.

She invested her amount, given by the state on surrendering as per the government policy, in setting up the stall as the nation celebrated its 67th Independence Day, said Mahali, who had a new feeling seeing the SSP and the DC inaugurating her shop after fighting with the uniformed personnel for years.
The 25-year-old reformed citizen, who joined when she was just 19, hails from neighbouring Khunti district.
Kundan Pahan, for whom she was working, is wanted by the police for the past several years in connection with several cases including the dreaded beheading of Special Branch Officer Francis Induwar in 2009 and looting money from a transit van of a bank.

The inauguration of Mahali's tea stall coincides with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren offering talks to the rebels and appealing to them to shun bloodshed during his Independence Day speech.