Police have gunned down three Naxals, including a Section Commander of the Maoist military platoon, active in Kanger Valley National Park area in the district.
The State Government had declared a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh on the head of the Naxal Section Commander, informed Deputy Superintendent of Police Sunkhandan on Sunday. The incident occurred in the forests of Badekakler under the limits of Farsegarh police station about 30 km from Farsegarh on Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border.
“Badekakler being on the border of both the States had become a safe heaven for Naxals to operate as the area is densely forested and hard to access from both sides,” the DSP said, adding, “This time a joint operation was conducted by Gadhchiroli and Bijpur police in the area.” Police had information that Naxals were running training schools deep in the jungles of Farsegarh on the inter-State border and accordingly the police teams from both sides were pressed in on February 6 for a search operation. During searching Naxals opened indiscriminate fire on police party in Badekakler which the police party returned. The gun battle lasted for hours after which insurgents disappeared in the jungles, DSP told The Pioneer over over phone.
Following the exchange of fire, the area was thoroughly searched wherein three bodies including a woman were found. They were identified as Chaitu alias Naveen Mandavi (38) resident of Pallayvaya, Bhairamgarh his wife Mase Telam (27) of Bijapur and Sannu Udde (23) of Sagmeta village of Farsegarh. A tiffin bomb, muzzle gun, bag pack, Naxal literature, medicines and other items of daily use were also found at the spot.
Giving details about the insurgents killed, the DSP said Mandavi between 2001 and 2004 was member of Military Platoon Number-2 in the National Park area. later on from 2005 till 2009 he worked as Training Instructor and since then he was elevated as Section Commander in Platoon-2. Wife of Mandavi Mase Telam was member of National park area Supply Dalam. The third person Sannu Ude had joined the Maoist cadre in 2006 and was member of Sendra local area squad since 2012, police said.