Bijapur District, April 1, 2025: A person authorities believe to be a leading cadre of the CPI (Maoist) was killed in a gun battle between security personnel and a squad of alleged Maoist cadres on Monday in the dense jungle hills near the tri-junction of Nelgoda, Ikeli, and Belnar villages in the Dantewada forest area of Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, Chief of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj P announced to the press today.
According to the police official the exchange of fire started around 9am on Monday while security forces were out on an anti-Maoist combing operation based on intelligence inputs. The exchange of fire lasted nearly two hours. When the encounter ended, the body of a woman police claim to be leading Maoist cadre Renuka was recovered from the site.
The police official claimed that the deceased individual, identified as Renuka, operated under several aliases — Chaite, Saraswati and Damyanti — and had been active in the Maoist movement since 1996. She allegedly served as the in-charge of the Maoist party’s press team in the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and the party’s Central Regional Bureau. She was also purported to be the editor of the underground Maoist publication Prabhat Patrika.
In his report the police official alleged that Renuka came from Kadavendi village in Warangal district of Telangana state and held a law degree. She supposedly joined the Maoist movement nearly three decades ago and rapidly climbed the ranks. Her early days in the movement were reportedly spent working alongside leading Maoist cadre Krishna Anna in Andhra Pradesh. In 2003, she was believed to have been promoted in the Maoist ranks and by 2006, she was active in South Bastar under the guidance of leading Maoist cadre Dula Dada alias Anand.
As per the report of the police official, in 2013, Renuka was said to have moved to the Maad region and worked closely with leading Maoist cadre Ramanna. Following Ramanna’s death due to COVID-19, Renuka was made the press team in-charge of the Central Regional Bureau in 2020. Under her leadership, several Maoist publications including Prabhat Patrika, Mahila Margam, Awami Jung, People’s March, Jhankar, and Pituri were regularly issued.
The police official concluded his remarks by declaring that security personnel recovered an INSAS rifle, other arms and ammunition and items of daily use from the encounter site, adding that further search operations were underway in the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment