Gummadi Vittal Rao who is popularly known as Gaddar, is a Telugu poet, revolutionary balladeer, activist and a former naxalite. Gaddar was active in the Naxalite movement till 2010, and later joined the movement for Telangana’ statehood. He went underground in the 1980s and became a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People’s War. Revolutionary balladeer and former Naxalite Gaddar was part of its cultural wing and performed in from of the crowds. He has a bullet in spine as a result of a failed assassination in the year 1997. After being active in Naxal movement till 2010, later he identified himself as an Ambedkarite. He adopted the name Gaddar as a tribute to the pre-independence Gadar party which opposed British colonial rule in Punjab during the 1911 .
Gaddar has written a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, and urged that all the criminal cases against him should be withdrawn. He requested withdrawal of prosecution from 3 criminal cases between 2005-06 under UAPA and Explosive Substances Act, all of which were pending in the various courts in Karnataka.
Gaddar said he has been falsely implicated in criminal cases in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He added that since cases were registered and that he was not issued any summons or arrest warrant but was continuously shown as an absconding accused person.