RAJNANDGAON: A woman Naxal, carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh on her head, was gunned down Tuesday in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district, police said.
The deceased ultra, identified as Jamuna alias Sagan Bai, 46, was allegedly involved in killing Likhiram Kavre, a minister in the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh in 1999, Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap said.
Jamuna was working as a secretary of Tanda area committee of Maoists.
The encounter took place at around 11:30 am near Gatapar police station area when a team of security personnel from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh was out on an anti-Naxal operation along the inter-state border, the SP said.
The operation was launched Monday evening from the base camp of Malaida in Gatapar area, located around 200 kms away from the state capital, he said.
When the patrolling team was moving through Shaktikasa forest along Tanda river Tuesday, it came under heavy firing from a group of Naxals, the SP said, adding that the security personnel returned the fire.
After a while, naxals escaped towards forest in Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, he added. During search, the body of a woman naxal clad in fatigues was found, besides a Carbine rifle, two magazines, Maoist literature, uniforms and a huge stock of naxal-related material, the SP said.
"Jamuna, a native of Balaghat in MP, was a divisional committee member-rank cadre," Kashyap said, adding that a reward of Rs 8 lakh was announced by the Chhattisgarh government for her arrest.
Over 30 naxal-related cases were pending against Jamuna in Rajnandgaon district alone, he added.
Since last few days, police have intensified anti-naxal operations in the forests falls on the tri-junction of Rajnandgaon, Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh) and Gondia (Maharashtra) in view of the nexth month's Lok Sabha polls.
On Monday evening, a CRPF jawan was killed and six others were injured in a Naxal attack in Dantewada district. Chhattisgarh will vote in three phases on April 11, April 18 and April 23. Voting in Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund and Kanker seats will be held on April 18.