Maharashtra: Key Maoist leader, six others killed in gunfight with security forces

A senior leader of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), who carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh, and six suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces in the Abujmad region of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, PTI quoted the police as saying on Friday.

A security officer was also killed and another injured during the anti-Maoist operation that had been going on in the area for three days, the news agency reported.

The Maoist leader was identified as Prabhakar alias Loketi Chandar Rao, who was in charge of the Maoists’ Gadchiroli divisional committee, the police was quoted as saying.

The Gadchiroli Police said that the operation was launched on Tuesday night following “credible intelligence” about the movement of a Maoist group in the region, PTI reported.

Fourteen units of the C-60 force, a special anti-Maoist unit of the district police, were deployed near Phodewada village along the Narayanpur–Gadchiroli district border, the news agency reported.

“An exchange of fire took place with Maoists for sometime during the day on Friday,” the news agency quoted the Gadchiroli Police as having said in a press note. “Their two camps were busted.”

Police said that C-60 officer Deepak Chinna Madavi (38), a resident of Mandra village in Aheri tehsil, was killed during the operation. He sustained a...

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