Kolkata: In a huge setback to Maoists, its top leader Kishenji was on Thursday killed in a gunbattle with security forces in a forest in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.
The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, was found and identified after the encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.
Kishenji, a Telugu, was a Maoist politburo member, the third in-command of the outfit and in-charge of its armed operations in junglemahal since 2009.
After receiving specific information that he and some of his associates and Suchitra Mahato, the wife of a slain leader he was living with, were holed up in Kushboni jungle, the area was surrounded by security forces, triggering an encounter.
Kishenji’s body was identified by the AK-47 rifle he was carrying. Suchitra and others fled. (PTI)
