The Chhattisgarh Police had identified two of the dead Naxals as Sanjeev, a “deputy commander”, and a woman named Pedda Budri. (Representational Image)
Seven of 10 Maoist operatives who were killed in an alleged encounter by Telangana Police’s anti-Maoist Greyhounds early on Friday were women dalam (Maoist armed unit) members, ostensibly left behind to keep security forces engaged to provide a window of escape for their senior male leaders, it is learnt.
The three men killed were part of an unarmed Maoist media team who had accompanied members of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) to a meeting at Pujarikanker, 30 km from the Telangana border in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, sources said.
The meeting, it is learnt, was organised to discuss strategy to counter assistance provided by Telangana Police to the Chhattisgarh government to tackle Maoists in areas abutting the state’s boundaries. Bhadradri Kothagudem’s Superintendent of Police Ambar Kishore Jha on Saturday said that the 10, only one person —- Dadaboina Swamy, alias Prabhakar, 53, from Ramapeta village in Warangal district —- was from Telangana. The others came from Chhattisgarh.
While two bodies were brought on Friday, the remaining could not be retrieved until Saturday morning and brought to the government hospital at Bhadrachalam, Bhadradri Kothagudem district, as combing operation was still on.
SP Jha said an autopsy was conducted on all the bodies.
On Friday, AP and Telangana High Court in Hyderabad had directed Telangana Police to ensure that autopsies are video-recorded in the presence of independent witness. The order came on a “lunch motion” petition by Revolutionary Writers Association, headed by writer and poet P Varavara Rao, who suspects the encounter was staged.
Dadaboina Swamy’s brother D Ranjith, who was called to identify the body, told The Indian Express today, “He was the first man from our village to get a BEd degree — from Warangal Regional College. He married at 25 and asked his wife to join the movement but she refused. Without doing anything illegal, he helped the movement for the next 10 years by writing for revolutionary magazines and newspapers before deciding to go underground in 2001…”
About a month ago, Ranjith said, Swamy got in touch thorough an intermediary and asked the family to sell a piece of land they owned jointly, and deposit Rs 12 lakh from sale proceeds in his estranged wife’s bank account. “He said the interest on the deposit would help her —- it was a kind of prophecy,” he said.
On Saturday, CPI (Maoist) warned of attacks against leaders of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti following the alleged encounter. In a statement, the party’s Telangana spokesperson, Jagan, accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Chattisgarh CM Raman Singh of colluding to kill Maoists in fake encounters. “This is being done to give land and water belonging to the adivasis to corporates,” the outfit alleged. “…firing was only from police’s side. We will intensify attacks on TRS leaders and Hindutva leader Raman Singh for unleashing attacks on adivasis.”
Telangana Police claims the Greyhounds commandos, assisted by special police of Chhattisgarh Police, came under fire from Maoists while conducting a combing operation in Venkatapuram-Cherla-Pujarikanker region along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border.
The slain Maoists were identified as dalam member Pedda Budri, 25 (of Singam, Sukma district, Chhattisgarh); Somidi alias Sukki (Dornapal); Kosi (Dornapal); Rame, alias Pande (Gollapalli); Mallesh, alias Baman; Dunga Indravati (Bairamgadh); Budri (Sukma, Chhattisgarh); Sanjeev, 35; Ithu, Tippapur; and Dadaboina Swamy, alias Prabhakar (Warangal).
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