Security forces in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra have launched a coordinated hunt for the “most wanted Maoist leaders in the country” — Madvi Hidma, 52, Ganapathi, 76, and Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji, 63.
Security bosses at North Block and South Block are known to have chalked out priorities for the forces, asking them to eliminate the trio before the Centre’s March 2026 deadline to end Left-wing extremism.
“The trio are considered the most wanted Maoist leaders in the country and the ideological backbone and intellectual pivot of the rebel movement. The security forces, armed with satellite images and drones, have intensified intelligence-based operations inside the forests of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Odisha to hunt them down,” said a security official with the Union home ministry.
Sources in the security establishment said tracking Hidma, Ganapathi and Devuji had been tough as they kept changing their locations. Hidma and Devuji have bounties of ₹1 crore each, while Ganapathi has ₹2.5 crore on his head. Several battalions, each comprising 1,000 personnel of the paramilitary forces, are part of the search operation across central India, and the CRPF’s elite commando wing, Cobra, will be used for “surgical strikes” against them, he said.
Hidma, elevated recently after being involved in deadly ambushes, is now commander of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, a specialised group formed in 2000 to improve Maoists’ military capabilities. “Hidma has been overseeing the training of the ground workers in Chhattisgarh. He has plotted all major attacks on security forces since 2013, including the massacre of 25 personnel of the paramilitary force in Sukma where the rebels used villagers as human shields,” said a CRPF official.