Visakhapatnam: A central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) was among the three Maoists killed in an encounter with security forces near the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border on Wednesday morning. The two women Maoists killed were also quite high in the hierarchy of the outfit.
The three dead Maoists have been identified as Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, central committee member and Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) Special Zone Committee secretary, Aruna, Special Zone Committee member and Anju, Special Zone Committee ACM.
A team comprising personnel of the local police, the elite Greyhounds and CRPF, was engaged in combing operations in the Devipatnam forest area when the encounter took place. When the Maoists opened fire, the security personnel retaliated, killing all three of them. The encounter occurred near Kondamodalu in the forests between Rampachodavaram and Maredumilli mandals, in the Alluri Sitharamaraju district in Andhra Pradesh. Three AK-47 rifles were recovered from the scene of the encounter.
Aruna was the wife of Ramachandra Reddy alias Chalapathi, a central committee member who was among 14 Maoists killed by security forces in January this year in Chhattisgarh, close to the border with Odisha.
The police have claimed that Aruna was involved in the killing of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma. The Maoists had gunned down the two leaders of the TDP in 2018 in the Visakhapatnam district.
Aruna was a native of Karakavanipalem in Pendurthi mandal of Visakhapatnam district and carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh on her head. So did Uday.
Senior police officials have visited the scene of the encounter. The killing of the three Maoist leaders is being seen as a major blow to the CPI (Maoist) in the AOB region. The AOB was seen by Maoists as a safe corridor between the Dandakaranya region in Chhattisgarh and the forests of Jharkhand.
Aruna’s slain husband Chalapathi is said to have played a key role in the bomb attack on Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the Alipiri forests in 2003. Aruna’s mother Mavi and brother Azad were also Maoists, killed in encounters in the past.
