‘77 killings’: Maoist explosives expert who became ‘synonym for violence’ in Chhattisgarh gunned down

According to officials, Korsa was involved in attacks that killed 25 security personnel in 2017; 17 in 2020; and 22 in 2021, apart from several other incidents.

“He got away a few times in the past, but we received information about his presence (in the area), after which a joint team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and the elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) personnel headed there on January 8. A day later, he was neutralised in the encounter that took place in the hilly jungles between Paliguda and Gundraj Gudem villages,” said Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran Chavan.

Korsa was a deputy platoon commander in the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Earlier, he had been a part of the PLGA’s Battalion 1, considered one of its most dangerous.

On at least three occasions when security personnel cornered Maoists and gunned down several of them, Korsa, who used an Insas rifle, managed to escape, police said.

In June last year, he had planted an IED in the Timapuram area of Sukma, right between two police camps, police said. The IED tore through a truck, killing two two CoBRA jawans.

In November, he was part of the small action team that attacked two policemen with sharp weapons at a weekly market in Jagargunda and looted an AK-47 and a self-loading rifle (SLR) from them, according to police, who said he was also involved in the attack on a CRPF sub-inspector, who was shot dead in Jagargunda near Bedre camp.

Born in Bijapur district’s Ganglur, from where police said the CPI (Maoist) has recruited many, Korsa joined the Naxals in 2010. According to police, in March 2017, he received one month training in planting IEDs. For nearly eight years since then, he has been planting IEDs in the Bastar region and has also taught the techniques to other Maoist cadres, including his wife Hemla, who works as a “doctor” in the banned CPI Maoist organisation, police said.

“His name had become synonymous with violent activities, especially in Jagargunda, in recent years. He has been active for over a decade,” Deputy Inspector General Kamlochan Kashyap said.

“On December 28 last year, Korsa planted a 40-kg IED in Polampalli, which could have caused major damage, but our forces managed to detect and defuse the bomb,” said SP Chavan.

As per Sukma police records, Korsa’s name first cropped up in a 2015 encounter in the jurisdiction of Chintagufa police station, where seven STF jawans were killed and 10 injured in Pidmel jungle.

The records also point to his involvement in the encounter that killed 25 CRPF jawans and injured seven who were part of a road opening party in Burkapal in 2017. In 2020, again in Burkapal, he was involved in an encounter that killed 17 jawans and left 15 injured.

In 2021, he was part of an encounter that led to the deaths of 22 jawans in Tekalgudem in Sukma, and another encounter in 2023, in which three jawans were killed on Singram road.