‘Milind Teltumbde among 26 Maoists killed in encounter’

 

 

Top Naxal leader Milind Teltumbde who was also known as Jiva and Deepak was one among those 26 Maoists killed in police encounter that took place in the hills of Tekkametta and Mardantola villages in north- east Gadchiroli bordering Chhattisgarh on Saturday morning. The District Police Department has identified his body along with 15 other outlaws and declared it officially in the press conference at the police headquarters, here on Sunday evening. As many as 16 Naxals killed in the firing have so far been identified. Six of them are the women and all of them were carrying handsome amount of reward on their heads. Teltumbde, who was in charge of the Dandakaranya Zone comprising Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, was carrying a reward of Rs 50 lakh. Other senior Naxal cadres, who were killed in the firing are Lokesh Madkam, DVCM and Commander of company No 4, who was carrying a reward of Rs 20 lakh, Mahesh Gota, DVCM of Kasansur Dalam with a reward of Rs 16 lakh, it was informed by the police.

 

While the eight of the killed Naxal cadres were from Chhattisgarh, most of others were from the district of Gadchiroli itself, according the list given by the police. The other Naxals have been identified as Adma Padyam, Bandu Gota, Pramod Kachlami, Kosa Musakhi, Chetan Pada, Vimala Boga, Kishan alias Jaiman, Bhagatsingh Zade, Sannu kowachi, Prakash Boga, Lacchhu, Nawluram Tulawi and Lokesh Madkam. Ankit Goel, SP, informed the reporters that the police got an input that some 100 Naxal cadres were being taken to Korchi area from Abuzmad upon which they planned an operation in the area. Around 300 jawans of C 60 commando force and Special Action Group (SAG) were deployed for the task under the leadership of Additional SP Somay Mundhe. As the police parties were carrying on their operation, the Naxals who were camping in the hills opened fire on them. The police too, duly retaliated the fire. The exchange of fire continued for about 9 hours from 6.30 am to 3.30 pm on Saturday. The Naxals were on the hills and high terrain as such it was difficult for the police jawans to counter them but they continued their firing.

 

“After the firing search was conducted on the site upon which we found 26 bodies including 6 women. All of them were first taken to Kotgul post and were brought to Gadchiroli on Sunday. The bodies were shown to the surrendered Naxalites, who identified as many as 16 of them. The process of identifying the remaining 10 Naxals has also been started,” it was informed. “The necessary formalities like postmortem, inquest panchanama etc are being conducted and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives after the formalities,” added Goel. The police found huge amount of sophisticated weapons like AK 47, SLR, INSAS and some Naxal literature from the site of the firing, he added. The Naxal movement in all the three states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh has received a severe setback due to the elimination of senior leader Teltumbde as he was the main brain behind the Naxal activities in these states, stated SP. Not only the district of Gadchiroli but all these three states will be benefited with this development, he added. The youths from Gadchiroli district have been declining to join the Naxal movement hence the Maoists have been recruiting cadres from Chhattisgarh, said Goel. Also present at the press conference were Sandeep Patil, DIG, Gadchiroli Range, Somay Mundhe, Sameer Sheikh, Anuj Tare, Additional SPs. 

 

 

 

Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde, who died in an encounter in Gadchiroli district on Saturday, was a native of Rajur (Izara) village, kms from here and was carrying a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head. He had left his family in 1996 Rajur saying he was going to serve people. He took part in the Naxal movement and became the supreme leader. Milind Teltumbde has five brothers and three sisters. His wife lives in Nagpur. Milind is the sixth child of his parents. He completed his primary education at the Zilla Parishad Primary School at Rajur (Izara). After further education in Wani and other places, he got associated with the CPI (M) at Wani. Later, he got a job in WCL and started working for ITUC.

 

He had also staged several agitations for the workers. During this, time came in contact with Chandrapur. He joined the Naxal movement in 1996, saying that he was leaving his native village to serve people. Due to his violent activities, he was a wanted Naxalite in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. The government had announced a reward of Rs 50 lakh for him. Milind Teltumbde was popularly known as Sahyadri. The decision on where to perform the last rites on Milind Teltumbde will be taken after the Government’s permission, informed his relatives.