RAIPUR: Jai Ram alias Chalpathy, a Maoist commander, who was a carrying an Rs 1 crore bounty on his head, was among the 14 ultras killed in a fierce exchange of fire in Gariaband district in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
SP Nikhil Rakhecha confirmed to TOI that 14 Maoists were killed in the encounter, led by Chhattisgarh’s District Reserve Guards, CRPF, CoBRA and Odisha’s Special Operation Group (SOG).
“This is one of the biggest encounters of the country as a Central Committee (CC) Member of banned Maoist organisation identified as Jai Ram alias Chalpathy has been killed. Usually the central committee members either die a natural death or rarely get arrested. Killing of a CC member in an encounter is a big achievement,” SP Rakhecha told TOI.
“At least 14 Maoists have been killed in a fierce exchange of fire between Maoists and security forces of Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Odisha, which is going on for more than 24 hours in Gariaband district. On Monday, security forces had recovered two bodies of women Maoists as the encounter still goes on,” the officer said.
A CoBRA commando had also suffered minor injuries in the gunfight on Monday and he was airlifted to Raipur for treatment.
A joint team of security personnel comprising Chhattisgarh’s District Reserve Guards, CRPF, CoBRA and Odisha’s Special Operation Group (SOG) has launched an anti-Maoist operation on the night of Jan 19, based on specific inputs about the presence of Maoists in forests of Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh.
Police said that there was an intelligence input about the presence of Maoists in large numbers in Kularighat reserve forest of Gariaband, which is located 5km from neighbouring Odisha’s Nuapada.
Gariaband SP Nikhil Rakhecha, Odisha’s Nuapada SP Raghvendra, Odisha Maoist operation DIG Akhileshwar Singh and CoBRA bn 207 commandant DS Kathait are leading the inter-state joint operation.
According to a police statement, twelve more Maoists were killed till Tuesday morning and a large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from the site of encounter. The number of casualties might rise as the intermittent firing goes on.
This is the second such operation jointly launched with Odisha security forces this year. On Jan 3, a Maoist was killed and three jawans were injured in a joint operation in forests of Gariaband district.
With the latest killings, Chhattisgarh recorded a Maoist death toll of 40 this year, while 219 Maoists were killed in separate encounters last year.