Kosa (Maoist)

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Kosa, born Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy, was a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was born in Adilabad, Telangana, and hailed from Gopalraopally village (now in Rajanna Sircilla district). He was also known as Gopanna and Sadhu. He married Radha in 1984. The couple chose to have a tubectomy to make guerrilla life easier, saying it was a personal decision and not forced by the Maoists.

Kosa was skilled with weapons and a strong guerrilla fighter. He served as the secretary of the Dandakaranya Special Zone Committee and later as its military commander. He was promoted to the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee to fill leadership gaps after Kishenji’s death, and Ramanna later took over as head of the DSZC.

In 2009, NDTV described him as one of India’s top five Maoist leaders. He faced charges including left-wing insurgency, murder, and criminal conspiracy. Kosa and fellow Maoist leader Katta Ramchandra Reddy (also known as Vikalp, Raju, or Vasu) were killed in an encounter with security forces on 22 September 2025 in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh.