A top CPI (Maoist) Central Committee Member Milind Teltumbde -- who carried a booty of Rs 50 lakh -- is among the 26 Maoists, including 4 women, who were gunned down by the security forces in Gadchiroli district, Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil said here on Sunday.
Milind, aged around 57, is the brother of human rights activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde -- the brother-in-law of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Dr. Prakash Ambedkar.
Anand Teltumbde is among the so-labelled 'Urban Maoists' who were raided in early and mid-2018 in connection with the Koregaon Bhima-Elgar Parishad cases, and is currently lodged in the Taloja Jail, Raigad.
Among those eliminated include at least four women Maoists, 13 carrying huge rewards on their heads and three Commanders of various Dalams active in the Naxal-infested district and surroundings -- making it one of the most successful security operations in recent years.
The prominent Commanders who have been obliterated include: Kishan alias Jaiman of Korchi Dalam and Sannu alias Kovachi of Kasansur Dalam, Lokesh alias Mangu Podyam of Company No. 4.
Besides Teltumbde with a reward of Rs 50 lakh, Mangu Podyam alias Lokesh carried a booty of Rs 20 lakh, and Shivaji Ravji Gota alias Mahesh with Rs 16 lakh on his head.
Those who carried lower amounts of rewards include: Kishen alias Jaiman and Sannu alias Kovachi (both Rs 8 lakh), and Tilak Manku Jade alias Bhagatsingh alias Pradeep (Rs 6 lakh).
The others are: Manso Sukhram Boga alias Vimla, Dalsu Raju Gota alias Bandu, Dalpat Lalsai Kachlami alias Pramod, Musakhi alias Kosa, Sadhu Sonu Boga alias Prakash, Lacchhu, Dilip Hirooram Tulayi alias Navluram (all Rs 4 lakh) and Chetan Pada Rs 2 lakh).
The security forces recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition comprising 5 AK-47 rifles, 5 SLRs, three mm pistols, an INSAS gun, a 12-bore gun, and a .303 rifle, besides other weapons.
The encounter, spread over Saturday early hours to late afternoon or more than 12 hours, is one of the biggest with 16 C-60 Commandos and over 500 personnel participating in the operation in the dense forests on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh borders.
The high fatalities notwithstanding another 70-plus extremists are reported to have fled under cover of darkness as many of their associates fell to the bullets of the security forces.
Top police officials suspect that a major forest convention was underway to possibly plan out some armed operation.
However, the security officials managed to get a realtime whiff from the intelligence networks, and resulted in the warfare lasting nearly 12 hours.
Jade and Vimla Boga happened to be the personal bodyguards of Milind Teltumbde, and the identity of a few of the slain Maoists is being established, said officials.
In the past around 4 years, the Maharashtra security forces have registered massive victories against the insurgents, and killed around 90 so far besides recovering big caches of weapons, arms and ammunition.
More than 40 Maoists including 4 commanders were gunned down in a bloody gun-battle in the district on April 22-23, 2018 - till date the biggest anti-Maoist operation.
On May 21 and October 11 this year, 13 and five Maoists respectively were killed in the encounters in different areas of Gadchiroli, followed by the November 13 operations that saw 26 Maoists eliminated.
In addition, on March 3-4 last year (2020), the security forces stormed a huge arms and ammunition manufacturing factory thriving in the deep jungles of the district.
Source IANS