MULUGU/RAIPUR: A total of five outlawed Maoists were gunned by the police in three different encounters on Tuesday. In the first incident, three members of the banned extremist group were gunned down in an encounter that took place early in the morning between the police and Maoists in Karrigutta forest region of Venkatapuram mandal in Mulugu district on Tuesday. In the second such incident, Maoists’ Telangana state committee member Sudhakar was killed in an encounter in a forested area in the border of Semaldodi village under Ilmidi police station in Bijapur district of South Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
In the third incident, security forces gunned down a woman Naxal, identified as Munni, in a forest on the border of Sukma and Dantewada districts in South Bastar. Munni carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on her head, the police said.
The police along with the Greyhounds personnel were conducting combing operations in the forest regions on the borders of Telangana and Chhattisgarh, when members of the Maoist group opened fire against the police who in return started firing against Maoists in Mulugu district, killing three ultras. The deceased were identified as Madikam Singey alias Shanta alias Anitha who worked in Yellandu and Narsampet area committee and at present was secretary to Wazedu and Venkatapuram area committees and Kommula Naresh alias Buchanna of Jaggaiahpet village of Regonda mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. The police are yet to identify the third person who was killed in the encounter.
Singey was the prime accused in the abduction and murder of former village sarpanch Korasa Ramesh of Sooraveedu village.
During the encounter, a greyhound police constable Madhu was also injured. The police shifted Madhu in a helicopter to Hanamkonda and after giving him primary medication took him to Hyderabad for better treatment.
Meanwhile in a press statement, Mulugu superintendent of police Sangram Singh G. Patil said that receiving information that the Maoist group was planning to abduct and kill some of the prominent political leaders, the Telangana and Chhattisgarh state police along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched joint combing operation in Mulugu and Bijapur districts.
The police recovered one SLR, one INSAS rifle, one single bore weapon, 10 rocket launchers and other articles at the encounter site, he informed.
In the encounter took place in a forested area in Bijapur district, Sudhakar, a divisional committee (DVC) member and senior member of Telangana state committee of Maoist was gunned down, Bastar range inspector general of police P. Sunderraj told this newspaper.
According to him, a search party of Greyhounds commandos, was out on anti-Naxal operations in the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border following inputs on the movement of Sudhakar along with 40-50 Maoists in the area.
A joint force comprising personnel of district reserve guard (DRG), an exclusive tribal force trained in counterinsurgency, and CRPF in Bijapur district cordoned off the area, he said.
One SLR and one INSAS assault rifle were also recovered by security personnel at the encounter site.
In another encounter with ultras in a forest in the border of Sukma and Dantewada districts in south Bastar, security forces gunned down a woman Naxal, identified as Munni.
