New Delhi/Narayanpur: Two top Maoist leaders carrying a bounty of Rs 40 lakh each in Chhattisgarh were killed in an encounter with security personnel in the state’s Narayanpur district on Monday, police officials said.
The two have been identified Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy (63) and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy (67), both Central Committee members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoists), they said.
The gun battle broke out this morning in the forest of Abhujmaad, adjoining Maharashtra, when security forces were out on a search operation based on inputs about the movement of senior cadres in the region, Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Robinson Guria said.
Intermittent exchange of fire continued for several hours before the bodies of two male cadres were recovered from the spot, he said.
From the encounter site, forces recovered one AK-47 rifle, one INSAS rifle, one BGL (barrel grenade launcher), a huge cache of explosives, Maoist literature, and other daily-use materials, he said.
Union Home minister Amit Shah congratulated security personnel for eliminating the two top Naxal commanders.
Shah said: “Our security forces are systematically eliminating the top leadership of the Naxals, shattering the backbone of red terror.”
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai also hailed it as a decisive achievement in Chhattisgarh’s fight against Naxalism.
Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy were natives of Karimnagar in Telangana active in ‘Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee’ of the outlawed movement (which handles Maoist activities in Bastar region) for over three decades, he said. They masterminded several violent incidents in Bastar, which claimed the lives of security personnel and civilians, the SP said.
Recent operations in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have witnessed a chain of arrests and killings. In Jharkhand, Sahdev Soren, the CPI(Maoist) Central Committee member with more than 80 cases of Naxal violence, was killed in a combined CRPF and Jharkhand Police operation. Sahdev had managed to escape in the 2012 jail van mishap.
In a further setback to the Maoists, a big battle in Abhujmaad also led to the death of Basavaraju (also called Nambala Keshav Rao), the CPI(Maoist) General Secretary, who carried a bounty of Rs 1 crore. About 30 cadres were gunned down in the operation.
With the latest action, 249 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 220 were eliminated in Bastar division comprising seven districts, while 27 others were gunned down in Gariaband district in Raipur division.