HANAMKONDA: A member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee Ankesarapu Saraiah alias Sudhir alias Sudhakar alias Murali, who was carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head, was among the three Naxalites killed in an encounter with security forces in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.
The gunfight took place in a forest along the border of Dantewada and Bijapur districts when a team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Dantewada SP Gaurav Rai said.
He was a native of Tharalapalli village of Kazipet mandal in Hanamkonda district.
Madikonda police inspector P Kishan and his staff visited the house of Saraiah at Tharalapalli. They informed his brother Ravinder, a daily-wager, about the death of Saraiah.
Upon learning about the death of Saraiah, several villagers rushed to his house.
Speaking to TNIE, Ravinder said that Saraiah had joined the banned CPI Maoist party attracted by its ideology in 1991. Elder brother of Ravinder, Saraiah studied class 10 at the government high school in Kondaparthy village in Kazipet mandal in 1983. After joining the Maoist party, Saraiah did not come to the village even when his parents died.
Ravinder appealed to the police to hand over the body of his brother so that he can perform the final rites.
Going into the details, personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Bastar Fighters, both units of Chhattisgarh police, were involved in the operation launched on the basis of inputs about the presence of Maoists in forests of Girsapara, Nelgoda, Bodga and Ikeli villages under Geedam police station limits, the police said.
After the exchange of fire stopped, bodies of three male Naxalites, including that of Saraiah, were recovered from the site.