Telangana’s Nirmal District Superintendent of Police (SP), C. Shashidhar Raju, on May 17, offered to withdraw cases against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres who opt to surrender, reports The Hindu. The SP said the withdrawal of cases would be done as per the government’s rules and guidelines on surrender of Naxalites [Left Wing Extremists, LWEs]. Collector M. Prashanthi assured the surrendered cadres, and those who are still underground, of sanctioning all the benefits that they will be eligible under the surrender policy. The two officials were addressing the kin of underground extremists and those who had surrendered at a ‘surrender mela’ at Nirmal where the latter made an appeal to the members of the families to urge their near and dear ones to leave the path of violence and join the mainstream.