RAIPUR: Nearly a week after the Feb 9 encounter in Bijapur in which 31 Maoists were gunned down, police were yet to identify three of them. The other 28 carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 1.1 crore. Police said 17 of them were ‘senior cadres’; some were part of Maoists’ IED squad and involved in the Jan 6 explosion that killed eight security personnel and a civilian driver.
Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said that a senior Maoist commander of west Bastar division committee member, Hunga Karma alias Sonku, was among those killed and carried a bounty of Rs 8 lakh. Sonku had joined the banned outfit in 1996 and had eight cases of murder, dacoity and abduction lodged against him . He was involved in several Maoist attacks, including the Jan 6 IED blast, Murkinar camp attack in 2006 that killed 11 jawans and the 2007 Ranibodli camp attack in which 55 securitymen died.
Nine of the Maoists were area committee members – carrying bounties of Rs 5 lakh each – and seven were ‘platform party committee member’ (PPCM), carrying rewards of Rs 5 lakh each.