RAIPUR: Three Naxalites killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district a day ago were senior members carrying a cumulative bounty of Rs 18 lakh, police said on Friday.
An encounter broke out on the hill of Paliguda-Gundrajgudem in Sukma, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation on Thursday morning. Bodies of three Naxalites were recovered from the scene.
One of the slain Naxalities, Korsa Mahesh, was an expert in improvised explosive devices (IED) and was the alleged mastermind of violent incidents in 2023 and 2024 in Bedre (Bijapur) and Jagargunda (Sukma) areas, an official said.
Mahesh was active as deputy commander of Maoists' platoon no. 30 and carried a bounty of Rs 8 lakh, Sukma superintendent of police Kiran Chavan said.
He said the two others, Madvi Naveen and Avlam Bheema, were area committee members and carried a bounty of Rs 5 lakh each.
The official said two barrel grenade launchers (BGLs), a 12-bore rifle, three tiffin bombs, five BGL shells and a cache of explosives and Maoist-related items were recovered from the encounter site.
"Mahesh was an expert in making, planting and triggering IEDs. He was allegedly involved in several incidents, including the Naxal attack in December, 2023 near Bedre, in which CRPF sub-inspector Sudhakar Reddy was killed, and the IED blast on a truck in June last year in Jagargunda that killed two CRPF personnel," Chavan said.
According to the police, nine Naxalites have been killed in three encounters at separate places in the state so far this year.