New Delhi: In a major operational success against the violent Maoist movement in the country, security forces Monday killed a member of the Central Committee, the top decision-making body of the Maoists, in Jharkhand.
The central committee member was identified as Vivek, also known as Prayag Manjhi, from the state itself, and had a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head, Jharkhand DGP Anurag Gupta confirmed to ThePrint.
Manjhi was the second central committee member to have been eliminated by the security forces so far this year. In January this year, security forces killed Ramachandra Reddy Gari Pratap Reddy alias Chalapathi in Chhattisgarh’s Kularighat reserve forest, barely 5 km from Odisha’s Nuapada district.
DGP Gupta added that, alongside Manjhi, forces also killed Arvind, a Special Area Committee member with a Rs 25 lakh bounty on his head, and Saheb Ram, a Zonal Committee member with a Rs 10 lakh bounty, during an exchange of fire.
Forces killed a total of eight suspected Maoists in the exchange of fire Monday.
Monday’s encounter broke out in the Lugu hills located in the Lalpania area of Jharkhand’s Bokaro district. The operation started early Monday morning when a team comprising forces from the 209th Battalion of the elite CoBRA unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jharkhand Police were dispatched to carry out a search operation in the area.
CRPF officials said that a huge cache of arms and ammunition has also been recovered in the operations. “Exchange of fire has stopped. Search operation is ongoing,” a CRPF spokesperson said.
At a press conference Monday afternoon, DGP Gupta said the operation was launched based on precise intelligence inputs, allowing security forces to swiftly deploy and encircle the group of Maoists whose presence had been tipped off.
“The first exchange of fire began at around 5.30 am today and it lasted for 1.5-2 hours. It was planned in such a way that forces were deployed in a circular cut off tactic that did not allow Maoists to flee the spot. CRPF’s CoBRA was the striking force,” DGP Gupta said.
He said that with Monday’s encounter, North Chotanagpur unit of the CPI (Maoist) is all but finished and the entire focus and deployment of forces will now be in Saranda forest area in the West Singhbhum district—the final hideout of Maoist in the state.
The developments in Jharkhand come amidst an unprecedented crackdown on suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh. State police forces, along with Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) like the CRPF, have launched an aggressive offensive against Maoist groups, even deep inside areas that were once strongholds for the Red Army.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set March 2026 as the deadline to end the Maoist threat in the country.
Addressing the Raising Day function of the CRPF last week, Shah had claimed that the Maoist threat was limited to only four districts and praised the CRPF and its CoBRA unit for opening up new camps in deeper areas, leading to success in operations against Maoists.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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