Bijapur, Jun 5 (PTI) Senior Maoist leader Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar, who had a bounty of Rs 40 lakh on his head, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Thursday, police said, days after the elusive chief of CPI (Maoist) was gunned down.

The killing of Sudhakar, a member of the Maoists’ Central Committee, comes a fortnight after CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70) was neutralised by security forces in the Bastar region, dealing a severe blow to the banned outfit.

Originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh, the 67-year-old was involved in indoctrination and radicalization of youth and also responsible for numerous Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh, resulting in the death of civilians and security personnel, they said.

The latest exchange of fire broke out in the forest of Indravati national park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation based on inputs about the presence of senior cadres, a senior police official posted in Bastar Range told PTI.

Personnel belonging to the Special Task Force, District Reserve Guard, both units of the Chhattisgarh police, and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action – an elite unit of CRPF) were involved in the operation that was launched on Wednesday, he said.

The offensive was launched based on inputs about the presence of Maoist leader Sudhakar, Telangana State Committee member Bandi Prakash, Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) member Pappa Rao, and a few other armed cadres, the official said.

After the guns fell silent, the body of a senior Maoist cadre along with an AK-47 rifle was recovered from the spot.

The deceased was later identified as Sudhakar, also known by aliases Anand, Chanti Balakrishna, Ramaraju, Aravind and Somanna. He was a resident of Pragadavaram village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, the official informed.

Sudhakar, a member of the Maoists’ Central Committee, the topmost governing body of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), was also in-charge of RePOS (Revolutionary Political School) and Central Regional Bureau (CRB), he said.

“Sudhakar was responsible for various violent incidents that resulted in the death of numerous innocent tribal civilians and the martyrdom of security personnel. Moreover, as in-charge of the Maoist ideological training school (RePOS), he was involved in misleading and radicalizing the youths with violent and anti-national ideologies,” informed Bastar Range Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sundarraj P.

“His death marks a major success for security forces and is a significant blow to the Maoist leadership, particularly in the Dandakaranya region (that covers south Chhattisgarh and border areas of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha). His neutralization will cause a considerable setback to the already weakening strength of the outlawed Maoist organization,” he asserted.

Search operations were still ongoing in the area to track down other Maoist cadres who might have fled the spot, and to recover additional material evidence, the IPS officer noted.

Further details, including the number of casualties and recoveries, will be shared once the operation concludes, he added.

On May 21, top Maoist leader Basavaraju and 26 other cadres were killed in an encounter with security forces on the Narayanpur-Bijapur border in the Bastar region.

With the latest action, 203 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 186 were eliminated in the Bastar division, which includes districts of Bijapur, Bastar, Kanker, Konadagaon, Narayanpur, Sukma, and Dantewada.

Since January last year, more than 403 Maoist cadres have been neutralized so far in the Bastar division in separate encounters, according to government figures. PTI COR TKP NR RSY