New Delhi: In November 2012, a group of Maoist cadres lay an ambush for a prison van carrying a dozen of their own returning after a court hearing in Jharkhand’s Giridih district. They managed to free almost a dozen of their cadres, including Sahadev Soren, then a special area committee member in charge of the Jharkhand and Bihar border.
It took security forces almost 13 years to turn the tables on Soren, now a central committee member. Soren and two others were trapped during a joint operation by the Jharkhand Police and the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) specialised wing, Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA).
Soren was killed early Monday morning along with two other cadres in the encounter, making it a “massive success” for security forces in Jharkhand. Sources in Jharkhand Police told ThePrint that Sahadev Soren was recently elevated to the central committee of the banned outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the wake of dwindling numbers in their top decision-making body.
“Prayag Manjhi, who was killed in April and Soren were two of the most vital cogs of the armed Maoist movement in the Parasnath region of the state. Their elimination in a short span of time can be seen as the beginning of the end for the Maoist movement in the state. The entire focus has been on the Saranda area in West Singhbhum that borders Odisha to weed out the menace once and for all,” a top Jharkhand Police officer, requesting anonymity, told ThePrint.
Soren, who carried a reward of Rs 1 crore announced by Jharkhand Police, also went by the aliases Anuj and Parvesh. He is the seventh senior Maoist leader to have been killed in an encounter with security forces this year, while another senior leader, Pothula Padmavati alias Sujatha, surrendered before Telangana Police Saturday.
On Thursday, security forces in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband eliminated another central committee member, Modem Bala Krishna alias Bhaskar.
Monday’s operation was conducted in a forest area under Gorhar in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district by a team of police personnel from the Hazaribagh and Giridih districts, along with CoBRA troops.
Raghunath Hembram and Virsen Ganjhu, two state-level cadres, were also killed during the encounter.
“Hembram was a special area committee member and had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh by Jharkhand Police, while Ganjhu, a zonal committee member of the banned outfit, had a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head,” said Jharkhand Inspector General of Police (Operations), Michaelraj S.
“His area of operation was in Bokaro, Hazaribagh and Giridih districts and was active in Jamui, Munger, Lakhisarai and Banka areas of Jharkhand and Bihar state for the last 02 (two) decades until 2021. He used to carry an AK-47 weapon and moved along with a group of 25-30 cadres, mainly in Parasnath hills of Giridih district, Jamui district of Bihar, Jhumra hills of Bokaro district, Chatro Chatti and Vishnugarh, Churchu and Aong police station areas of Hazaribagh district,” IG (Ops) Raj said in a statement.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a post on X, said Monday’s operation completely eradicated naxals Jharkhand’s Bokaro region.
आज झारखंड के हजारीबाग में CRPF की कोबरा बटालियन और राज्य पुलिस की जॉइंट टीम को एंटी नक्सल ऑपरेशन में बड़ी कामयाबी मिली है। इस अभियान में ₹1 करोड़ का इनामी, कुख्यात नक्सली कमांडर सीसीएम सहदेव सोरेन उर्फ परवेश को ढ़ेर कर दिया गया है। साथ ही, दो अन्य इनामी नक्सलियों- रघुनाथ…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 15, 2025
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Bhelwaghati massacre, Chilkari killings
In Hazaribagh’s Bhanderi village, Soren’s family and several other tribal families were troubled by ‘upper caste’ strongmen who had grabbed land amounting to 100 acres, police records show. Soren, records show, was also vexed about sexual assault against tribal women by the ‘upper caste’ strongmen.
He joined the local fragment of the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI), which Kanai Chatterjee formed in its earlier form as Dakshin Desh, on 20 October 1969. It merged with the People’s War Group (PWG) in September 2024, which gave birth to the banned outfit. He worked as an informant for the Maoists, providing food and shelter during their stay in the village before he was handed a rifle by the cadre for protection, says a dossier prepared on him by the police.
“He was trained to handle weapons by senior Maoist cadres, Navin Manjhi and Misir Besra and became a potent regional figure for the Maoists between 1994 and 2000. He was then appointed a regional committee member,” the dossier adds.
Manjhi, a zonal commander, was arrested by Jharkhand Police in May 2012, while Besra rose the ranks and is currently the only central committee member of the outfit still out of the forces’ grasp. Besra was elevated to a special area committee member rank and was handed the charge to look after the Jamui-Banka zone for the Maoist outfit.
According to police records, Soren’s first brush with security forces dates back to 1994, when he was in an encounter with the police in Hazaribagh. But it wasn’t until the January 2005 landmine blasts in Lakshmipur forest in Bihar’s Munger district that killed the then Superintendent of Police, K.C. Surendra Babu and four police officials, that he landed on the radar of security forces.
The killing of the IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh sparked widespread outrage as the attack took place months before the assembly elections in Bihar. The same year, Soren’s name also cropped up in connection with the infamous massacre in Bhelwaghati village of Giridih district in which 16 villagers were killed on the night of 11 September 2005.
Two years later, Soren was blamed for yet another massacre, when 20 people were shot dead from close range in Chilkari village of Giridih district in October 2007, among whom was former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi’s son.
At the time of his death, Soren had at least 30 criminal cases lodged against him in police stations across Jharkhand’s Bokaro and Giridih districts.
“Soren and Manjhi (Prayag) were the two Maoist cadres who troubled the entire state machinery in the Chhotanagpur region for decades. Their getting trapped in operations in such a short period of time establishes their failing control over the region and security forces’ increasing reach and command in dense forests,” said another Jharkhand Police officer, requesting anonymity.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)
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