Maharashtra encounter: 'Over 100 Maoists rained bullets on commandos, ignored surrender plea'

NEW DELHI: As many as 100 Maoists opened indiscriminate fire on the C-60 commandos and jawans of the Special Action Team from sophisticated weapons during the 10-hour long encounter in the Mardintola forest in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Addressing a press conference after security forces gunned down 26 Maoists on Saturday, Gadchiroli SP Ankit Goyal said the police had received intelligence inputs about two days before the Saturday operation about the presence of a Maoist camp in the forest.

The forest lies in the Gyarapatti area of the Korchi tehsil.
The ultras had apparently gathered in large numbers in the forest to plan "subversive" activities against security personnel ahead of the Naxal week.
Goyal said that early morning when the search operation was launched, over 100 Maoists opened heavy firing at the commandos.
"A team of 300 police personnel, including C-60 commandos and SAT, along with additional SP Soumya Munde were conducting a search operation on Thursday night in the Mardintola forest. Around 6am on Saturday, over 100 ultras opened a heavy firing with their sophisticated weapons and ammunition on C-60 commandos and Special Action Team (SAT) personnel," he said.
The SP said when C-60 commandos came under fire on Saturday morning, they appealed to the Maoists to stop gunfire and surrender.
"But, disregarding this appeal, Maoists intensified the gunfire. The ensuing gun battle between the police and the ultras continued close to ten hours and ended at 3.30 pm when sensing mounting police pressure, the Maoists fled the place of the incident taking cover under the thick forest," h said.
"During the search, the commandos recovered 26 bodies which included 20 men and 6 women," he added.
Senior cadre Milind Teltumbade, considered a pioneer of the concept of “urban Maoism”, was among those killed in the encounter.
Four security personnel were also injured in the attack.
Goyal said many of the slain Maoists carried huge rewards on their heads, including Teltumbde who carried a bounty of Rs 50 lakh.
"Killing of Milind Teltumbde will affect the Naxal movement very badly not only in Maharashtra but across India," Goyal added.
Teltumbde was a wanted accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, a senior police official said earlier in the day.
As per a charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgar Parishad case, Milind Teltumbde was named as the 'dreaded Maoist', a top operative of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and declared as absconding.
Sources told TOI that Teltumbde was being escorted to the Maharashtra border by the Chhattisgarh-based Vistar “dalam” and was received by Korchi dalam members and Company No. 4.
(With inputs from PTI)