2 Maoists shot by Telangana cops near Chhattisgarh border

HYDERABAD: Two naxalites of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in an alleged encounter with Telangana police at Puttapadu in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district in the wee hours of Sunday.
CPI (Maoists), in a letter, called it a fake encounter, holding BRS leaders and district police, including SP G Vineeth, responsible.
Kothagudem police said Greyhounds commandos and district police came across the naxalites while combing along Telangana-Chhattisgarh border after an intelligence input about the movement of Maoists' action committee members aiming to target security forces.
Cops said that when the forces were at Puttapadu under Kishtarum police station, a group of Maoists on a hill top began firing at the police.
The police retaliated and after a few minutes of cross-firing, when the police team reached the spot, they found the body of two naxaliles. Near the bodies police recovered a SLR, a single bore and other material.
One of the dead men was identified as Local Organisation Squad (LOS) commander Madakum Erraiah alias Rajesh (26), while the other man is yet to be identified. Rajesh had joined the CPI (Maoist) when he was 19 and hailed from Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, police said.
Following the encounter, police continued combing in the forest for any Maoists still holed up in the area.
A few hours after the encounter, Bhadradri-Kothagudem-Alluri Sitaramaraju (BK-ASR) divisional committee in a statement said that cops had caught two unarmed men and later killed them "Rajesh went to Puttapadu in connection with Maoist party's official work. He was unarmed. He was caught, tortured and then killed. Another person who died is a local villager. Police have projected it as an encounter by arranging a weapon nearby. BRS leaders, district SP, DSP and inspector have to take responsibility,'' the statement said.
The bodies were later shifted for post-mortem.