Bijapur, June 5: A senior Maoist leader with a ₹40 lakh bounty on his head was killed during an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Thursday, official sources confirmed.
The slain Maoist has been identified as Gautam alias Sudhakar, a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist). His death marks another significant setback for the Maoist insurgency, coming just days after the elimination of Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraj, the outfit’s general secretary, in the Bastar region.
Though sources have confirmed the killing, an official announcement regarding Sudhakar’s death is still awaited.
The gunfight erupted in the dense forests of the Indravati National Park during a joint anti-Maoist operation, launched following intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Maoist leaders in the area, a senior police official from the Bastar Range told.
Personnel from the Chhattisgarh Police’s Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG), along with CoBRA commandos of the CRPF, were part of the operation.
According to the official, the offensive was specifically targeting high-profile cadres, including Sudhakar, Telangana State Committee member Bandi Prakash, and Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee member Pappa Rao.
“Preliminary reports indicate a major breakthrough for the security forces,” the official said, adding that search operations are still ongoing in the region and further details will be shared in due course.
