Maoist CC member Chalapati among 14 rebels gunned down in Ch’garh encounter

Raipur: In a body blow to Maoists, security forces on Tuesday killed CPI(Maoist) central committee member Chalapati, who carried a bounty of Rs 1 crore, along with 13 other cadres in a fierce encounter that has been going on for two days in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district.
The gunfight began in the forests along Chhattisgarh-Odisha border after a joint operation launched on Monday by Chhattisgarh's District Reserve Guards (DRG), CRPF, CoBRA and Odisha's Special Operation Group (SOG), and was still on till reports last came in. Gariaband SP Nikhil Rakhecha confirmed to TOI that 14 Maoists had been eliminated in the operation.
A native of Matempaipalli village in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, Chalapati, besides being a member of the Maoist outfit's top decision making body, was also the Odisha state committee in-charge, and was currently operating mainly in Marh region of Chhattisgarh, police said.
"This is one of the biggest encounters in the country as a central committee member of the banned Maoist organisation has been killed. Usually, central committee members either die a natural death or in rare cases, get arrested. Neutralising a CC member is a big achievement," Rakhecha said.
Hailing the success of the security forces as "another mighty blow to Naxalism", Union home minister Amit Shah, in a post on X, said: "With our resolve for a Naxal-free India and the joint efforts of our security forces, Naxalism is breathing its last today."
The latest success against the guerrillas comes just two days after CPI(Maoist) Telangana state committee secretary, Bade Chokka Rao alias Damodar, was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.
"The Gariaband encounter has gone on for more than 24 hours. On Monday, security forces had recovered the bodies of two women cadres," the SP said.
According to a police statement, 12 more Maoists were killed on Tuesday morning and a large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered from the encounter site. Police expect the toll will rise as intermittent gunfights are on.
A CoBRA commando was injured in the gunfight on Monday and was flown to Raipur for treatment.
The joint forces launched the operation on the night of Jan 19, based on specific inputs about the presence of a large group of Maoists in Kularighat reserve forest of Gariaband, around 5km from Nuapad in neighbouring Odisha and 125 km from state capital Raipur.
Gariaband SP Rakhecha, Nuapada SP Raghvendra, Odisha Naxal operation DIG Akhileshwar Singh and CoBRA 207 battalion commandant D S Kathait are leading the inter-state operation.
This is the second joint operation by Odisha and Chhattisgarh forces in the forests of Gariaband district this year. On Jan 3, a Maoist was killed and three jawans were injured in a joint operation.
As many as 40 Maoists have been gunned down in Chhattisgarh in the first three weeks of the year.
Speaking to reporters in Raipur, Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma termed Chalapati's killing "a big achievement". He added that over 260 Maoists had been killed, 870 surrendered and more than 1,000 arrested, since the formation of Vishnu Deo Sai-led BJP govt in the state in Dec 2023.