The C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli police on Saturday recovered one more highly decomposed body of a Maoist from the Indravati river bed, taking the toll in the much-discussed twin naxal encounters to 40.
On a day when search operations continued in and around Boria-Tadgaon jungle of Bramhagad tehil of Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra, the C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli police fished out the body of a Maoist from the river bed of Indravati. “Along with the body of the Maoist, we have recovered an AK-47 rifle. We are continuing our search operations in Indravati river,” a senior police officer said.
Of the 40 Maoists killed in the biggest-ever twin anti-naxal operations, the bodies of 18 Maoists have been identified so far. Among the Maoists killed in the two encounters, there were 20 women, while the remaining 20 were men.
“Of the 18 identified bodies, we have handed over 13 bodies to the family members concerned. We have appealed to the family members of five other Maoists to collect the bodies forthwith the Gadchiroli district civil hospital,” the police officer said.
Eight of the Maoists killed in the twin anti-naxal operations were from Gattepalli is in the Etapalli tehsil of Gadchiroli district.
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.
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.
The four DVC members killed in the encounters were: Shinu alias Shrikant alias Vijendar Narasimhulu rao (51), chief of South Gadchiroli naxal unit, Sainath alias Dolesh Madi Atram (36),Perimeli Dhalam commander, Raju alias Ramesh Naresh Kutke (29), Gatta Dhalam commander and Shantabai alias Mangali Pada (31), Aheri dhalam commander.
Apart from eliminating a sizeable number of Maoists, the security agencies seized a huge cache of weapons and ammunitions -- including three AK 47 assault rifles, two SlRs, two 303 rifles, one musket, 18 12-bore firearms, 5 8-mm bore firearms, explosives and detonators – from the two encounter sites and Indravati river.