RAIPUR: Even after one year of demonetization, Naxals in Chhattisgarh are still able to exchange old currency with new ones. The details have been come out after an encounter which took place on Wednesday night where three Naxals were killed in a joint operation by Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Chhattisgarh police.
The Naxals were cornered by the forces while they were going to exchange old currency with new ones.
According to the details, an input based operation was launched by 40 men of 44th Battalion of ITBP led by deputy commandant Rakesh and 7 men of Chhattisgarh police on Wednesday night. “As per initial information received from operation party at around 10:15 pm, an encounter took place between the Party and Small action team of Naxals. In which 03 Naxals identified as Rakesh Dugga, who was the commander, Ranjeet, Member of Pallemadi and Mahesh, Aundhi area committee member were encountered,” a top ITBP official told New Indian Express.
“1 AK-47, 1 Insas rifle and 1 SLR rifle have been recovered from the site. They had gone to change their old currency into new. Mahesh and Rakesh were carrying rewards of Rs 5 lakh each on their heads, while Ranjit was carrying Rs 3 lakh reward,” officials said.
ITBP Director General Ranjit Kumar Pachnanda on Thursday morning left for Chhattisgarh from Delhi. According to the sources, Naxal commander who had planned attacks on police parties many times had escaped almost eight months ago from an operation.