Maoist central committee member killed in Indravati National Park encounter in Chhattisgarh

This comes nearly a fortnight after Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basava Raju, the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), was gunned down in an encounter along with 27 others in the jungles of Abujhmad region in Narayanpur district on May 21.

Sudhakar, as he’s widely known, was killed in a joint operation after the security forces received intelligence inputs on the presence of some senior leaders. Several teams from the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Central Reserve Police Force’s elite unit, Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) were part of the operation.

According to officials, Sudhakar was the person in-charge of outlawed outfits ideological training ground, the Revolutionary Political School (RePOS) as well as its Central Regional Bureau (CRB). A native of Pragadavaram in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, Sudharkar was promoted into the ranks of the outfit’s Central Committee in 2021 and had a bounty of Rs 40 lakh in Chhattisgarh.

“He was a senior Maoist leader responsible for various violent incidents that resulted in the deaths of numerous innocent tribal civilians and the martyrdom of security personnel. Moreover, as the in-charge of the Maoist ideological training school (RePOS), Gautam was involved in misleading and radicalising the youth with violent and anti-national ideologies,” Bastar’s Inspector General of Police Sundarraj P said.

An AK47 rifle, as well as some explosives and ammunition, has been recovered from the spot, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Yadav said.

Indravati National Park has seen two other major encounters this year between Maoists and security forces. On February 9, two security forces personnel and 31 Maoists were killed in an encounter at the national park. Before that, on January 12, five Maoists, including two women, were killed in an encounter with security forces.

Back in August 2023, sources in the security forces had told The Indian Express that Maoists were recruiting new cadres in the national park, Abujhmad, and the Kanker-Narayapur inter-district border near Maharashtra. The fresh recruits are also being trained in the national park, the sources had said, adding that they had been using drones to track security forces.

Security forces have since been trying to free the national park area of Maoists. Also, they want to build a bridge over the Indravati river that would connect the two states and help boost economic activities.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March 2026 to eradicate Left Wing Extremism (LWE) from India. The security forces this year till date have 202 Maoists, of which 185 were in Bastar region alone — Bijapur is a part of Bastar region. This year has also seen the death of 17 security personnel in attacks by Maoists.

Vehicle torched in retaliation

Raipur: Hours after security forces gunned down a central commitee member of banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Thursday, a group of Maoists stopped a transport vehicle and set it on fire in retaliation. The incident took place on Thursday night on a two lane road between Karemarka and Behramgarh in Bijapur. A group of four to five Maoists stopped a private transport truck and set it on fire after dousing it in petrol. One lane of the road was stopped for vehicluar movement and the truck was guarded by security personnel wielding rifles with passenger buses passing by from the opposite lane. —ENS