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Journalism of Courage
For 10 hours on Saturday,around 30 Naxals held off 250 police commandos in this village,killing three cops. One of the Maoists was Raneeta,32,who,the police said,fought the elite CoBRA commandos for six hours single-handedly,using a .303 rifle,hiding in a small maize field behind a hut.
Not only was the encounter unique for the length for which it went on,the police are alarmed at the quality of training the Maoists displayed.
A local tribal girl,Raneeta had joined the Maoists in 2000 and risen to the level of LOS commander. She is believed to have been involved in more than 12 encounters,and was named in 26 FIRs for offences including murder and arson.
Her husband Sunil was a member of the North Gadchiroli Divisional Committee till last year,when he was demoted as area committee member for alleged violation of the no-mobile and no-motorcyles rule. Raneetas brother Bhaskar is also a divisional committee member.
Around 8 am,a 70-member police party from the Potegaon post,located about 7 km away,had come to Makadchuha a village that has just five huts on a search mission. There were general inputs about Naxal movement in the area but no specific input about their presence in the village. Our men got fire from inside the village which set off the encounter, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (Gadchiroli range) Sunil Ramanand.
While around 25 Naxals were hiding in the forest adjoining the village,three,including Raneeta,were in Makadchuha when the police closed in.
Presuming they had been spotted,the three started firing from near a hut,killing police constable Dewangan Pardesi and injuring CRPF constable Chandan Nath. The police fired back,leaving a Naxal badly injured. Maoists managed to drag him back into the forest. Raneeta,however,got stranded.
As a chopper removed Nath to safety,a huge posse of cops comprising CoBRA and C-60 commandos also joined the original party,with Ramanand himself leading along with CRPF DIG Satish Khandare.
Around 10 am,Raneeta reportedly left the hut she was hiding in and moved to the maize crop brushing the forest that was by now swarming with cops. Unsure of the exact number of Naxals in the village,the police were hesitant about rushing inside. As Raneeta held them off for the next six hours,they were also not sure of whether she had others with her in the field.
Among those she shot was Inspector Vitthal Pawar of Gadchiroli police,who was evacuated,while CoBRAs Chandrashekhar Kore and Rashid Ahmed succumbed to their injuries. We gave many surrender calls,but they were not heeded, said DIG Ramanand. Finally,the police lobbed grenades,one of which hit Raneeta. Around 4 pm finally,a team of commandos stormed the field and shot her.
