Vijayakumar reached Madurai on Thursday, after he was apparently directed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi himself to take on the task of flushing out the suspected Maoists from the forest range in Theni and Dinidgul districts in south Tamil Nadu.

“We have information about the whereabouts of the seven men who escaped. We will nab them soon and rid Tamil Nadu of extremism,” Vijayakumar told reporters in Periyakulam, after holding discussions with Theni District Superintendent of Police R Sudhakar and ‘Q’ branch SP Ashok Kumar, both of whom are leading combing operations in the forests in the Western Ghats.

After a visit to the Murugamalai hills where the ammunition of the suspected Maoists had been seized, Vijayakumar said the team had devised a “strategy” to carry out ‘nab Maoists’ operation. “More STF personnel would be inducted into the district police and ‘Q’ Branch for the operation,” he added.

On June 26, some villagers in the hilly Periyakulam forest area in Theni district helped to nab three youths suspected of attempting to revive the dormant Maoist movement in the state.

What made the police suspicious was the seizure of significant quantities of arms and ammunition, including pistols, grenades and cash, leading them to believe that the youths (10 of them) were in the process of recruiting sympathisers and building a Maoists’ base in the state. Seven of them managed to escape when the villagers came after them.

The three men who were arrested—Velmurugan, Muthuselvam and Palanivel—are said to have told the police during interrogation that they had been preparing for arms training in the forests. The case was handed over to the state ‘Q’ Branch-CID police.

Vijayakumar had been the blue-eyed boy of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, enjoying prominence during her previous tenure. But worried by the Maoists’ spurt and reports that several youths had been identified as potential recruits, the DMK Government decided to hand over the brief to Vijayakumar, an acknowledged field operations expert.