New Delhi: At least 14 Maoists were killed inside a tiger reserve during a joint security operation in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband area, according to sources in the security establishment. The body of wanted Maoist commander Chalapathi, who masterminded the killing of TDP MLA Kidari Sarvewara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma in 2018, was found among the slain cadres.
Carrying a bounty of Rs 1 crore, Chalapathi was a member of the Central Committee, the top decision making body of the Maoists, heading the Odisha state committee of the banned outfit. Known for carrying out meticulously planned attacks, he came into the reckoning by blowing up a police station in Visakhapatnam as well as the police headquarters at Odisha’s Koraput district in 2003.
While at the Nandapur Area Committee, Chalapathi orchestrated a landmine blast at Sunki in Odisha’s Koraput district that killed seven policemen in 2017. “This was the last offence registered in his name that came to our attention,” one of the sources told ThePrint.
Given his marked status, security forces were on the lookout for the Maoist commander. But, it was not until May 2016 that they had any detail of the wanted man. That year, the Greyhounds, an elite unit in the Andhra Pradesh Police, neutralised Galikonda Area Committee commander V.R.L. Gopal alias Azad, in the jungle outside Visakhapatnam.
The forces recovered a laptop from Azad that provided access to the unseen world of Maoists operating in the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha and Chhattisgarh region. More importantly, a selfie of Chalapathi alias Appa Rao and his wife Aruna came in the hands of the forces. “That selfie was and is the only picture available till now of Chalapathi,” another source told ThePrint.
Security personnel began scanning the Kularighat reserve forest of Chhattisgarh, barely 5 km from the border of Odisha’s Nuapada district, from Sunday evening, after receiving input about the presence and movement of top Maoist leaders in the area.
As for the ongoing joint operation by the Chhattisgarh Police, the Special Operations Group of the Odisha Police and the Central Reserve Police Force’s CoBRA personnel, it is the first such instance in which a member of the Maoist central committee was killed in the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border areas.
On Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the encounter was “another mighty blow to Naxalism”. “Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat. The CRPF, SoG Odisha, and Chhattisgarh Police neutralised 14 Naxalites in a joint operation along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. With our resolve for a Naxal-free India and the joint efforts of our security forces, Naxalism is breathing its last today,” he posted on ‘X’.
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Served Andhra govt once
Born in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, Chalapathi did Bachelor of Science in sericulture from his home district followed by a diploma from Mysuru in 1985. He worked in the Andhra Pradesh’s government’s sericulture department in Vizianagaram district the same year.
Three years later, he went on to join the Maoists wherein he steadily moved up the ranks. Promoted as in-charge zonal military commission of Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) in 2004, Chalapathi also went on to become press secretary of the committee.
He first rose to become the east division secretary of the outfit around 2010, according to sources in the security establishment. Around the same time, he married Aruna, who was deputy commander of the Koraput-Srikakulam Division Committee.
The laptop that contained the selfie of Chalapathi and Aruna proved to be a veritable goldmine of information on Maoist activities. The security establishment got crucial details about the mode of movement and operation between the borders of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.
Nearly five months later, a joint team of Andhra Pradesh Greyhounds and Odisha Police encircled a group of suspected Maoists at Jantri in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, neutralising 31 suspected cadres.
Waiting desperately to avenge the encounter that took place in his area, Chalapathi hatched a plan to carry out a high-profile hit. Two members of the ruling Telugu Desam Party—the then Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma— were killed in September 2018 near the Andhra-Odisha border.
“He directly masterminded these killings of MLAs and prominent leaders from the ruling party to strike fear among the population in the border region with Odisha to further their grip,” another official in the security establishment told ThePrint.
Chalapathi’s luck ran out more than three decades after he joined the Maoist outfit. His death is expected to create a leadership vacuum within the Maoist ranks, a point highlighted by former Chhattisgarh police chief R. K. Vij.
The retired IPS officer told ThePrint that neutralisation of such a top cadre creates an impact on the morale of the cadres at the lower level and can lead to their disillusionment.
“This can have an impact on the lower cadres that if a central committee member, who moves with a platoon of nearly 20 personnel with them is not safe from security forces, the Maoist leadership is not capable of protecting them. This can lead to an increase in the number of surrenders of lower Maoist cadres,” he asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Excellent news indeed.
Instead of recovering the dead bodies of the slain Naxals, the security forces should booby trap them with explosives and leave them in the jungles.
This is what the Naxals do to our jawans. We should pay them back in their own coin.