2 Top Maoists Carrying Rs 80 Lakh Bounty Gunned Down in Abujhmad Encounter
Central Committee members Ramachandra Reddy and Satyanarayan Reddy were gunned down by security forces
Raipur: Two top Maoists carrying a bounty of Rs 40 lakh each were on Monday gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Abujhmad area along Chhattisgarh- Maharashtra border, police said.
The two slain Maoists have been identified as Katta Ramachandra Reddy and Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy.
Both of them were Central Committee (CC) members of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), police said.
Bodies of the two Naxals, along with several automatic weapons, were recovered at the encounter site in the Abujhmad forest falling under Narayanpur district in south Bastar of Chhattisgarh, Bastar inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper.
The encounter, which took place along the border of Narayanpur (Chhattisgarh)- Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) district,s was still underway till the last reports came.
“Preliminary identification of the two slain Maoists confirmed them to be Maoist Central Committee (CC) members, Raju Dada alias Katta Ramachandra Reddy, and Kosa Dada alias Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy. Both the Maoist leaders carried a bounty of Rs 40 lakh each in Chhattisgarh”, Narayanpur district superintendent of police Robinson said.
K Ramachandra Reddy (63) had many Maoist names like Gudsa Usendi, Vijay, Vikalp and is a native of Karimnagar in Telangana.
He carried a bounty of Rs 40 lakh.
Kadari Satyanarayan Reddy (67), who had Maoist names like Gopanna and Buchanna, is also a native of Karimnagar in Telangana and carried a bounty of Rs 40 lakh in Chhattisgarh.
Both the slain Maoist CC members were active in the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee for over three decades and were masterminds behind numerous violent incidents including 2010 Tadmetla ambush in which 76 CRPF jawans were massacred and 2013 attack on convoys of Chhattisgarh Congress leaders leading to elimination of its frontline leaders including Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Nand Kumar Patel and his newly married son, and former minister and veteran tribal leader Mahendra Karma, who had founded the anti-Naxal civil vigilante force Salwa Judum.
Security forces have recovered one AK-47 rifle, one INSAS rifle, one Barrel Grenade Launcher (BGL), and a large cache of explosives at the encounter site, the police officer said.
“The decisive operations against the banned CPI (Maoist) have delivered a major setback to the organization. The Maoist cadres should now accept the reality that the Naxal movement is nearing its end”, Mr. Sunderraj said.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai hailed the security forces for neutralizing two top Maoist leaders in Monday's encounter in Abujhmad.
No less than two dozen top Maoist leaders, including CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju, were killed in separate encounters in Bastar and Gariaband in Chhattisgarh in the past five months.