3 Maoists, including 2 women, killed in encounter in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli
The security forces also recovered a significant cache of weapons from the encounter site, including an AK-47 rifle, a carbine and an INSAS rifle
Three suspected Maoists, including two women, were killed in an encounter with security forces in a forest area in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, bordering Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, on Monday, police said.
The Superintendent of Police (SP), Neelotpal, said that based on intelligence indicating the presence of members of the banned CPI (Maoist) group, specifically the Perimili Dalam, planning their Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC), two units of C-60 commandos, led by additional SP, Yatish Deshmukh, were dispatched immediately for a search operation in the forests near Katarangatta village under Bhamragarh tehsil on Monday morning.
During the search operation, the left-wing extremists, who were camping there, opened fire on the commandos indiscriminately, prompting the C-60 personnel to retaliate. The commandos engaged in an hour-long exchange of gunfire, resulting in the militants fleeing and leaving behind the bodies of one male and two female Maoists.
The slain Maoists were later identified by police as Vasu Samar Korcha (36), a senior leader of CPI (Maoist) and the in-charge-cum commander of the Perimili Dalam of Gadchiroli district, Reshma Madkam (25), a senior squad member and Kamla Madavi (24), a dalam member of Perimilli Dalam. Of them, Vasu, who was involved in several anti-police operations in the region, carried a reward of ₹16 lakh on his head while Reshma carried reward of ₹4 lakh and Kamla carried a bounty of ₹2 lakh.
Their bodies were later sent to the government-run general hospital at Gadchiroli for postmortem.
The security forces also recovered a significant cache of weapons from the site, including an AK-47 rifle, a carbine, an INSAS rifle and Maoist literature. The two female Maoists, who were killed in the encounter, are yet to be identified.
Neelotpal confirmed that the anti-Maoist operation was on-going in the district, highlighting the strategic significance of the TCOC period for the CPI (Maoist). This operation marks a significant achievement for the Gadchiroli police, particularly in light of recent encounters in the neighbouring Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
Earlier, four suspected Maoists, carrying a collective bounty of ₹36-lakh, were killed in an encounter with police near Repanpalli in Gadchiroli district on March 19 this year.