Bijapur: Top Naxalite leader Bhaskar, who carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 45 lakh, has been killed in an encounter with security forces in Indravati National Park area in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Friday, a senior police official said citing “preliminary identification of body”.
The encounter was part of the same anti-Naxal operation underway since Wednesday by personnel from the state police’s Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG) as well as the CRPF’s specialised unit CoBRA, Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range Sundarraj said.
“After the exchange of fire stopped, the body of a Naxalite along with one AK-47 rifle and other explosives, weapons, and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site. Preliminary identification suggests the body is of Bhaskar alias Mailarapu Adellu, a special zonal committee (SZC) member of the Telangana State Committee (TSC) of the outlawed Maoists,” he said.
“Bhaskar, a resident of Adilabad district in Telangana, was the secretary of the Mancherial-Komarambheem (MKB) division of the TSC of Maoists. He carried a reward of Rs 25 lakhs in Chhattisgarh and 20 lakhs in Telangana,” the IG added.
This is the third big success in the past fortnight for security forces pushing relentlessly against the Naxals with the aim of ending the menace by March 2026.