Hyderabad, Dec. 28: A Maoist top gun and his wife ran into a combing squad in the jungles of Andhra Pradesh, triggering a three-hour gun battle in the dark that left the couple dead.
Sixth in the hierarchy of the CPI (Maoists), Varkapur Chandramouli alias Devanna was the commander of the eastern division of the People’s Guerrilla Army of the banned outfit. He carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head and was suspected to have masterminded a series of kidnappings of politicians and IAS officers.
The 49-year-old Chandramouli and his wife Jyothakka were moving around near a village off the Dandakaranya forest in Visakhapatnam when they came face to face with a team of security forces scouring the forest since yesterday evening.
The security forces, guided by Visakhapatnam superintendent of police J.G. Murali, have been combing the area on a tip-off that some Maoist leaders were holding a conclave in the forest.
In the encounter that followed, Chandramouli and Jyothakka were killed but four other Maoists escaped. They left behind kit bags, medicines, laptops, explosives, grenades, mines and some guns.
“We have finally identified the bodies as that of Chandramouli and his wife Jyothakka,” Murali said, adding that the bodies were being brought down the hillocks for post-mortem.
The Maoists neither confirmed nor denied the deaths till late this evening. But balladeer Gaddar today met chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and sought a judicial inquiry into the encounter.
Chandramouli’s hand was suspected in the abduction of seven bureaucrats, including four IAS officers, in East Godavari district in 1984. The hostages, among them a peace negotiator, were released only in exchange of a prominent Naxalite leader.
The police touted the death of Chandramouli as a fatal blow to the Maoists and another sign of the effectiveness of a new combing campaign.
The outgoing director-general of police, Swaranjit Sen, had made relentless combing using better communication equipment the cornerstone of the battle against the Maoists.
The strategy had paid off in the Nallamala forest, around 270 km from Hyderabad, where most hideouts of the Maoists have either been busted or are under attack.
The DGP, who is laying down office this week, spent half a day in the dense forest on Tuesday to boost the morale of the security forces.
The Maoists have been locked in a war with the security forces since the last three decades in which over 6,500 people have died.