One of the three alleged Maoists shot dead in an “encounter” by the police on the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border on Friday was 19-year-old Kodamagundla Vivek, a dropout from Osmania University who had played a major role during the students’ agitation for Telangana in 2012-14. A fiery orator and speaker at Osmania University, Vivek would often feature in newspapers and social media in photos where he was being dragged away by police during protests.

Hundreds of people, Osmania University students and alumni attended Vivek’s funeral and a meeting at Suryapet on Sunday to protest against the alleged encounter. Soon after the killings, a CPI (Maoist) North Telangana spokesperson, Jagan, had issued a statement accusing the police of killing unarmed Vivek and two others in cold blood.

A member of the Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika, the students’ political wing of Osmania University, Vivek had dropped out of a five-year integrated law course in September last year, and with Telangana formed as a separate state, disappeared from the campus scene soon after.

Hailing from Nalgonda district, Vivek left home on October 8 telling his parents he wanted to work for the poor and told them about his resolve to join the Maoists. “We tried to reason with him but he didn’t listen. He was very active in the students’ agitation in Osmania and, during that period, he seemed to have drifted towards Maoists. After leaving, he called one day and promised to return home soon,” Vivek’s father K Yoganand said.

Vivek’s death shook Suryapet, his native town, as the residents were caught unawares about his Maoist connections. They narrated tales about how they treated him as a child.

Vivek's elder brother Srinivas Krishna completed B-Tech from a private college in Hyderabad and was on hunt for job. Vivek took active part in Telangana movement.

Vivek's mother Madhavi and father Yogananda Chary and many other close relatives were all government teachers. Chary was a school assistant in mathematics at Noothankal village while his wife Madhavi taught at Kummaraguntla village of Warangal district. 

He was a student of Kakatiya Concept School in Suryapet up to seventh class but shifted to Warangal to be with his mother. A teacher of the school said Vivek performed well in social studies but his father admitted him for coaching to IIT course. Vivek last contacted a girl classmate at the school by Facebook to know what their friends were doing.  

A teacher closely associated with the family said that Chary was associated with RSS during his childhood but started working with communists since his post graduation days at Osmania University. He was currently associated with Democratic Teachers Federation.