Communist Party of India (Maoist)’s Central Committee Member (CCM) Milind Teltumbade, who carried a bounty of Rs 50 lakh on his head, and two Divisional Committee Members ( DVMs) were among 26 Maoists – including six women – gunned in a massive encounter with the special anti-naxal commandos of the Gadchiroli police in eastern Maharashtra on Saturday.
Fifty-seven-year-old Teltumbade was the leader of Tipagad and Korchi naxal dalams and also Vistar Platoon, was the brother-in-law of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president and former MP Prakash Ambedkar and the brother of human rights activist and scholar Anand B Teltumbde of Yavatmal, who was among the “urban Maoists’ arrested in connection with the Elgaar Parishad-cum-Bhima-Koregaon case in early 2018. Anand is currently lodged at the Taloja Jail in Raigad district.
A day after as many as 26 Maoists were killed the second biggest encounter between the outlawed naxalites operating in Gadchiroli district and security forces, Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal on Sunday identified two DVMs killed in the fierce gun battle as Commander Lokesh alias Mangu Podyam of Company No. 4 and Commander Shivaji Ravji Gota alias Mahesh. Lokesh and Mahesh carried bounties of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 15 lakh respectively on their heads.
Apart from CCM Milind Teltumbade, Madkam and Gota, other prominent Naxal operatives gunned down in the encounter with the elite commandos of the Special Operation Squad (C-20) and Special Action Group (SAG) set up to fight the Maoists, were: two naxal commanders Kishan alias Jaiman of Korchi Dalam and Sannu alias Kovachi of Kasansur Dalam – both of whom carried bounties of Rs 8 lakh each.
The other Naxal operatives eliminated in Saturday’s gun battle included: 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 (Rs.4 lakh each) and Chetan Pada Rs 2 lakh).
Of the 26 Maoist killed in the encounter, there were six women. One of the female Maoists was identified as Vimala alias Imla alias Kamala alias Manso Sukhram Boga Guard of Milind Teltumbade, while five other women remain unidentified. Similarly, six other Male Maoists have not been identified yet.
Meanwhile, the police have recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition -- including five AK-47 rifles, one AKM-UBGL, nine SLRs, three .303 rifles, nine 2.2 single bore , one Insaas rifle, one pistol and explosives in huge quantities – from the forests where the fierce gun battle took place between 6 am and ended at 3.30 pm.
“The gun battle between police and the naxalites that began at 6 am continued for approximately nine and half hours and ended at around 15:30 hrs. Sensing mounting police pressure, the Maoists fled away from the place of incident taking cover under the thick forest,” Gadchiroli’s Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal said.
Goyal said that the encounter with the Maoists took place when the commandos were conducting search operations in the forest of Mardintola, which comes in the limits of Gyrapatti forests in Korchi taluka of Gadchiroli district. The Maoists had gathered there to plan strategies to fight the security forces in the backdrop of an upcoming "naxal week" and also to undertake subversive activities in the area. “Ninety to 100 hidden armed naxalites opened indiscriminate fire in the direction of the commandos with the intention of killing them and thereafter snatching away their arms and ammunition,” the Gadchiroli SP said.
Saturday’s was the second biggest-ever encounter in terms of naxal casualties –after the twin-operations that took place on April 22, 2018 in which 40 Maoists – including 20 women – were killed in the twin anti-naxal operations.
While 33 Maoists were killed in the first encounter undertaken jointly by the C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli police and personnel from battalion 9 of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Boria-Tadgaon jungle of Bramhagad tehil on the morning of April 22, 6 left extremists were gunned down in the second operation carried out by the C-60 commandos in Ninar jungle of Jamalghatta sub-division in Gadchiroli district on the following evening.
Later on April 28, 2021, one highly decomposed body of a Maoist from the Indravati river bed, taking the toll in the much-discussed twin naxal encounters to 40.
The significance of the twin encounters could be seen from the fact that four of the five Maoist Divisional Committee (DVC) members of south Gadchiroli unit were eliminated in the twin encounters.
Saturday’s encounter comes on the heels of fierce gun battle in the deep forests of Kotmi in Etapalli taluka of Gadchiroli district on May 21, 2021, in which 13 Maoists, including 7 women, were killed.
After that gun-battle that lasted for more than 90 minutes, the elite C-60 commandos of the Anti Naxal Squad (ANS) of the Gadchiroli police had recovered a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives, including one AK-47 rifle, SLR, Carbine, 303 and 12 bore rifles and an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) from the spot.