Kishanji: A wily commander done in by his own daring

Always clad in a cotton shirt with a scarf around his head and a Kalashnikov dangling from his shoulder, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji was a wily commander and a rousing speaker. He wore several hats down his 37-year-long revolutionary road before police bullets felled him in West Bengal. A Brahmin by birth from Peddapalli in Karimnagar district, Kishanji (56) was the second son of M Venkataiah and Madhuramma. Venkataiah was a school teacher and Madhuramma lives in Peddapalli. "She would get angry when she saw Kishanji on TV giving interviews. She feared that the police would track him down and wanted him to go deep into the forests," a Peddapalli resident said.