Gadchiroli, April 1: A Naxalite carrying a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head was killed on Saturday in an encounter with C60 jawans in a forest in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, officials said.
The gun battle broke out at around 10 AM in the Kiarkoti-Abujhmad forest in Bhamragarh taluka. A huge cache of weapons, electronic devices, solar panels and other items have been recovered from the spot after the encounter which lasted for around an hour, they said.
A press release by the office of Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police stated that in the lead-up to an ongoing planned agitation in the Todgatta region, Naxalites had threatened the local population to join.
They had strategically distributed pamphlets to instigate local villagers to support their cause and to oppose the road work and other developmental work on the false pretext of starting of Damkodwahi mining operation.
As per the input, a large congregation of Naxalites was present near Todgatta to intimidate villagers, and they were planning a largescale ambush and attack on operating police parties, the release said.
Acting on the input, Gadchiroli police’s C60 anti-Naxal squad on Saturday morning launched an operation in the Abujhmad forest bordering Chhattisgarh.
During the operation, they came under indiscriminate fire from a group of 60 to 70 Naxalites hiding in the Hiker forest who used BGL and other weapons.
The jawans retaliated and engaged Naxalites for approximately an hour. Eventually, the Naxalites managed to flee into the dense forest.
The body of a male Naxalite was found in the forest area during the search and has been identified as Sameer alias Sadhu Linga Mohanda (31). He had a string of serious cases pending against him.
“He had worked as a member of Chatgaon Dalam in the year 2014-15 and as a security guard for Bhaskar in Platoon No. 7. He had been working in the company no. four since 2018. Preliminary reports suggest that he was presently working in Company No. 10,” it stated.
Maharashtra government had announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh on Mohanda, it said.
A search operation is still underway in the forest area. (PTI)
