15 more bodies fished out from river, Gadchiroli toll now at 37

GADCHIROLI: The Gadchiroli police, which had earlier neglected to pull the corpses of slain Naxalites out of the Indravati river, retrieved 15 bodies on Tuesday after TOI reported it had seen 11 bodies floating in the water.

The bodies included those of eight women cadres. With Tuesday’s recoveries, the toll from Sunday’s encounter at Rale-Kasnasur forest, near the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, has gone up to 31, including 15 women. Police claimed to have killed six more Naxalites in another encounter in Nainer forest on Monday.

By this count, the police have eliminated at least 37 Naxalites, including 17 women, in two days. Together, the Naxalites carried a reward of Rs 1.06 crore on their heads, including Rs 76 lakh for those killed in the first encounter.

The encounter on the banks of Indravati, conducted along with Central Reserve Police Force personnel, is the biggest success of any security agency against Communist rebels in the country. The previous highest for the Gadchiroli police was around eight Maoists killed in December 2017. Senior officials indicated the toll could be higher still as more bodies may float up in the river. “The presence of crocodiles in the waters had halted the recovery of some more weapons and bodies,” said an officer.

The Gadchiroli police had — for reasons unknown — earlier decided to bring back only 16 bodies from the encounter site and had declared that number to the media while keeping mum about the possibility of more corpses in the river. When TOI reached the place with the help of some tribals, the decomposing bodies could be seen floating in water.

Gadchiroli SP Abhinav Deshmukh said the commandos had to abandon the search on Sunday as there were only two squads holed up in a critical location. “The search operations had to be called off in the dark as there was the question of the personnel’s safe return to headquarters,” he said.

At a press conference in Gadchiroli on Tuesday, Maharashtra police additional director general D Kanakratnam praised the forces and said this was a huge blow to the Naxalite movement.

According to a press release, the forces had come under heavy fire from 40-50 Maoists. It claimed similar circumstances for the second encounter involving 10-12 rebels. Of the 37 dead, 16 have been identified so far. Police said several senior cadres were among the dead.