The security forces have killed at least 26 Maoists in a gun battle on Saturday in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, located over 900 km from Mumbai, media reports said.
The encounter began in the morning at Korchi in Mardintola forest area at a time when a C-60 police commando team was conducting a search operation, Gadchiroli district Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal said.
“We have recovered 26 bodies so far. The deceased Maoists will be identified by Sunday morning,” he said.
Four policemen also received injuries in the encounter and were taken to Nagpur for treatment, police said.
Indian Express reported that 16 parties of the C-60 commandos with a total strength of over 500, who carried out the operation, instead of 100 elite C-60 commandos of the Gadchiroli police as claimed by the police.
Sources told Indian Express that the operation was launched based on a tip-off that the Maoists were camping in the forest.
“The group mainly comprised Korchi Dalam members led by Sukhlal, member of the Gadchiroli divisional committee of the CPI(Maoist). But there must have been members of some other formation as well as the encounter was a prolonged one, indicating that there was stiff resistance by the Maoists,” sources were quoted as saying by Indian Express.
This is the second biggest success of the police against the Maoist insurgents in the history of Gadchiroli.
On April 23, 2018, the Gadchiroli police had killed 40 Maoists in two separate encounters.
Media reports said that it is rumored that CPI(Maoist) central committee member Milind Teltumbde was among those who were killed.
“For now, it is only a rumour. We will be able to say for sure by Sunday morning once all the bodies get identified,” Goyal said.
Sources told Indian Express that police have taken Rakesh, the former bodyguard of Teltumbde, who had surrendered a few days ago, to check whether the CPI(Maoist) leader was among the deceased.
Teltumbde is one of the wanted accused in the Koregaon Bhima-Maoists links case.
Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse-Patil also told news agency PTI that the police were verifying if Teltumbde was among those killed.
