To boost the morale of the security forces involved in the encounter which took place on Sunday gunning down Special Area Committee (SAC) member Ashish Da of CPI (Maoist) at Podadih in Gumla, DGP DK Pandey on Monday visited the operation site and distributed cash reward of `4 lakh among 22 CoBRA jawans who were involved in the operation. later DG (CRPF) K Durga Prasad came from Delhi and distributed a reward of `1 lakh among jawans.
In a major achievement by Jharkhand Police, Special Area Committee (SAC) member Ashish Da of CPI (Maoist) was killed here at Podadih village under Raidih Police Station in Gumla on Sunday during a joint operation carried out by Central Reserve Police Force and State Police. Ashish had bounty of `25 lakh on his head.
Boosting the morale of the jawans, the DGP said that their next target should be the top Maoist leader Arvind Ji.
“You have achieved the target of `25 lakh…now go on for the next target of `1 crore,” said the DGP. Maoist free Jharkhand was his dream so that the lights of development could reach out to the remote areas also, he added.
Pandey on Sunday, had also met local villagers at Padadih in Gumla where the encounter had taken place, and tried to win their trust by ensuring them that Naxalism will soon be eradicated from the area if they keep on supporting the police.
Meanwhile, gun battle between security forces and the Maoists continued till Monday for the second consecutive day as they believed that several rebels were still trapped in the jungles of Podadih following the encounter which took place on Sunday.
“The operation against Maoists still continues as we are quite hopeful that some of the rebels are still stuck there in the firing,” said IG (Operations) MS Bhatia.