North Gadchiroli freed from rebel grip after Maha Police kill 12 Maoists in jungle bloodbath

Dealing a crippling blow to the armed Maoist movement ahead of the Maoist Week, the Gadchiroli Police gunned down 12 insurgents including five women rebels, in the jungles near Wandoli Village on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, top officials said here on Thursday.

The deep forest encounter in pouring rain led to the recovery of a cache of arms and ammunition, eliminating three top-rung functionaries and has practically cleansed north Gadchiroli of armed Maoist activities, said a beaming Superintendent of Police, Neelotpal on Thursday afternoon.

Among those who were shot dead include three Divisional Committee members, five Area Committee Members of the banned CPI(Maoist), plus four Dalam Members, coming barely days ahead of the Naxal Week from July 28-August 3.

Three police officers – Satish Patil, Shankar Potavi and Vivek Shingole sustained bullet injuries in the cross-firing with the armed Reds. They were immediately evacuated in a helicopter mid-way during the encounter, flown to Nagpur where they are undergoing treatment in a hospital and their condition is stable.

“All the deceased were wanted for various heinous crimes and carried a collective bounty of Rs 86 lakh on their heads… With this operation, the Local Organisation Squad of the entire Korchi-Tipagad and Chatgaon-Kasansur region has been wiped out and complete north Gadchiroli cleared of armed Maoist groups,” said Neelotpal.

He was flanked by the top brass which guided and strategised the major operation comprising Sandip Patil, Ankit Goyal, Yatish Deshmukh, Kumar Chintha, M. Ramesh, Vishal Nagargoje and crack commandos and personnel of the Anti Naxal Operation (ANO).

The post-encounter combing operations reaped a cache of arms and ammunition comprising seven automatic weapons like one carbine, one SLR, two INSAS, three AK-47s, explosives, detonators, lots of Maoist literature, and other personal belongings of the slain Maoists in the vicinity.

Neelotpal said that a tip off was received on Wednesday morning that around 12-15 Maoists of the Korchi-Tipagad and Chatgaon-Kasansur LOS were camping in the forests near Wandoli on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, with plans to carry out subversive activities during the forthcoming Naxal Week.

Immediately, seven units of the C-60 squad led by Nagargoje were rushed to the area for a combing operation, crossing the dense wilderness, straddling streams and rivers, when they suddenly faced indiscriminate firing by the Maoists hiding in the vicinity.

The intermittent firing lasted for around six hours after which it stopped and the surviving rebels are believed to have escaped into the jungles in the darkness.

After a search of the encounter spot, the security forces came across the bloodied bodies of the slain Maoists - all facing serious cases of murder, abductions, arson, encounters, planting mines, etc., and having a combined bounty of Rs 86 lakh for their capture/killing, and the arms cache they left behind.

By Thursday morning they were identified as three DVCMs each with a Rs 16 lakh bounty on their heads --- Yogesh D. Tulavim 36 with 67 cases lodged; Vishal Atram, 43 with 78 cases filed; Pramod Kachlami, 31 with 58 cases registered.

The five ACMs each with Rs 6 lakh reward on their scalps are Maharu Gawade, 31, facing 20 criminal cases; Anil Darro, 28, with 16 cases; Sarita Parsa, 37, facing 26 cases; Rajjo Gawade, 35, with 21 cases; and Vijju whose details are awaited.

The Dalam Members each with Rs 2 lakh bounty on their heads include Sita Hawke, 27, with seven criminal cases; Chanda Podyam, Roja and Sagar, whose details are being investigated.

Neelotpal said that in the last three years, 80 dreaded Maoists were killed in different encounters, another 102 were arrested from their lairs and 29 have laid down arms before the Gadchiroli Police.

Wednesday’s encounter now ranks among the biggest of its kind in the past seven years in Maharashtra, even as the police renewed their appeal to the rebels to surrender and join the national mainstream.

Prior to this, on April 22-23, 2018 when the combined security forces had carried out a massacre of 40 Reds in the Gadchiroli jungles, comprising four commanders and several other dreaded rebels carrying bounties of varying amounts on their heads.

Later, on May 21, 2021, the security forces eliminated 13 ultras lurking in the Pyadi-Kotmi jungles in Etapalli region in a pre-dawn swoop followed by huge cross-firing on a Maoist camp.

Subsequently on October 11, 2021 another encounter took place in the Kosmi-Kisnela forests of Dhanora region on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, in which five Maoists were shot dead.

In March 2020, the security forces had carried out a successful Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign (TCOC) against the Maoists on the district borders and busted a secret arms manufacturing unit in the jungles.