Body of second Maoist leader recovered from Bijapur site

Hindustan Times

a day ago

Top Maoist leader Bhaskar was killed in an encounter with security forces in Indravati National Park area in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday and his body was recovered from the site of the operation on Friday, officials said.
A statement from Bastar range inspector general of police Sunderraj P confirmed that the deceased was identified as Mailarapu Adelu who was popularly known by his alias Bhaskar, a top functionary of the CPI (Maoist)'s Telangana State Committee (TSC).
Bhaskar also served as the secretary of the Mancherial-Komarambheem (MKB) division and held the rank of special committee member (SCM).
The encounter was part of the same anti-Maoist operation underway since Wednesday by personnel from the state police's Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG) as well as the CRPF's specialised unit CoBRA, Inspector General of Police, Sundarraj said.
'After the exchange of fire stopped, the body of a Naxalite along with one AK-47 rifle and other explosives, weapons, and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site. Preliminary identification suggests the body is of Bhaskar alias Mailarapu Adellu, a special zonal committee (SZC) member of the Telangana State Committee (TSC) of the outlawed Maoists,' he said.
'Bhaskar, a resident of Adilabad district in Telangana, was the secretary of the Mancherial-Komarambheem (MKB) division of the TSC of Maoists. He carried a reward of ₹25 lakhs in Chhattisgarh and 20 lakhs in Telangana,' the IG added.
This is the third big success in the past fortnight for security forces pushing relentlessly against the Naxals with the aim of ending the menace by March 2026.
On Thursday, senior Maoist leader Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar, who had a bounty of ₹40 lakh on his head, was killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area, police said.
On May 21, Communist Party of India (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70) was neutralised by security forces in Narayanpur in Bastar region.
'With the killing of both Bhaskar and Sudhakar in back-to-back operations, we believe it is a significant setback for the Maoist presence in the region. The search for other cadres is still underway,' the IG added.
According to Chhattisgarh police records, Bhaskar, 53, hailed from Pochera village under Boath mandal in Telangana's Adilabad district and belonged to the Scheduled Caste (Madiga) community.
He discontinued his intermediate studies and was earlier engaged in agriculture. Bhaskar was married to Kanthi Lingavva alias Anitha, who was a Divisional Committee Member (DCM) in the same division and was killed in an encounter on December 22, 2022.
Records claimed that Bhaskar was fluent in Telugu, Hindi, Gondi, and GothiKoya and was known to carry an AK-47.
Since January last year, more than 403 Maoist cadres have been neutralized so far in the Bastar division in separate encounters, according to government figures.
Sundarraj reiterated the appeal to Maoist cadres to surrender. 'We are committed to restoring peace and development in the region,' he said.
The action against Maoists is part of the Union government's aim of eliminating Left-wing extremism from the country by March 2026