Bijapur: Maoists have hacked to death two villagers, including the brother of a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan, in a remote village in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district.
The Pamed area committee of the South Bastar division of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) is known to have claimed responsibility for the murders. In the past, the Maoists would conduct a “janata adalat” or “people’s court” before punishing someone with death, but no such public meeting was conducted this time, the police said.
The killings come at a time when a large number of Naxalites, including top leaders, have either been neutralised or surrendered in the state.
According to the police, the killings took place around 8 pm in a remote village named Nelakanker, about 80 km from the Bijapur district headquarters. A group of around 10-15 Maoists knocked on the doors of the two men, Ravi Kattam (25) and Tirupati Sodi (38). Both were asked to step out and then killed in front of their homes.
Kattam was a police aspirant and would travel to Bastar town often to prepare for the exams. This made the Maoists suspicious. Sodi’s brother is a jawan with the CRPF.
According to the police, 71 civilians were either killed or lost their lives to Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in 2024. At least 41 people have died so far this year.
While security forces have managed to almost clear Maoists from Abujhmad after more than four decades, the banned outfit still has its presence in Bijapur and the neighbouring Sukma district.
Among the top leaders who surrendered recently was politburo member Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu (70). He surrendered in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli with 60 other cadres on October 14.
As many as 170 Maoists surrendered in Chhattisgarh days later. They included Takkalappalli Vasudeva Rao alias Rupesh (59), who is known as the Maoists’ bombmaker and is believed to have orchestrated the attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on December 2, 2000.
The party is now being run by Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji (62) and Madvi Hidma alias Santosh (51), both of whom have only headed the military wing of the party or the Central Military Commission (CMC).
