Rush Hour: 22 alleged Maoists killed, ED told to stop action in Tamil Nadu liquor scam case and more

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Security forces killed 22 suspected Maoists in two separate gunfights in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur and Kanker districts on Thursday, police said. Eighteen suspected Maoists were killed in an early morning gunfight near the Bijapur-Dantewada border, while another four were killed near Koroskodo village in Kanker district.

One District Reserve Guard also died in the operation. Search operations and combing efforts were underway in both areas, police said. A cache of weapons was recovered from the Kanker site.

Later in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the operations were part of the government’s “zero tolerance” approach to left-wing extremism and reiterated that India would be “Naxal-free” by March 31 next year. With these deaths, at least 81 suspected Maoists have been killed in gunfights with security forces this year. Read on.

The Madras High Court has asked the Enforcement Directorate to pause action in a money-laundering case involving the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation, or Tasmac, which has a monopoly on the state’s liquor market. The court did not issue an interim stay order, but verbally expressed concern over the ED’s conduct during searches at the corporation’s Chennai headquarters earlier...

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