MALAPPURAM: The police on Saturday refuted the charge of fake encounter in which two top Maoist leaders were killed in Nilambur on Thursday. The shootout was accidental during the operation which had been going on for the past few months deep inside the Nilambur forests. “Thursday’s exchange of fire was in retaliation for an unexpected firing from around 11 Maoists hiding in the area. The incident was not a fake encounter but accidental shootout in self-defence,”
Malappuram district police chief Debesh Kumar Behera said in Nilambur on Saturday. He, along with senior police officers who were part of the operation, was briefing the media. The police reiterated that the operation against the Maoists in Unakkappara region of the forest, around 10 km from the Padukka forest station, was carried out according to specific intelligence inputs. But the forces, including Thunderbolt commandos, were unaware of the exact location of the base camp of the Maoists.
Personal belongings, electronic equipment and medicines recovered from the tents of Maoists deep inside the forest. The police produced these before media on Saturday in Nilambur (Photo: DC)
“The exchange of fire lasted for 10 minutes. The bodies of Kuppu Devaraj and Ajitha were found during a search after the shootout. There were around 11 Maoists who had camped in the area and all the remaining had fled from the spot due to heavy firing,” said M.P. Mohana Chandran, DySP of Perinthalmanna, who is in charge of the anti-Naxal operation in the Nilambur forests. The police have also confirmed the presence of Vikram Gowda, a commander of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, the armed wing of CPI (Maoist), Soman and another woman among the escaped.
The police had no idea about the identities of Kuppu Devaraj, a central committee member of CPI (Maoist) and Ajitha, a Karnataka state committee member of the banned party when they found their bodies. Later they were identified by the inputs provided by the Q Branch of Tamil Nadu police. The presence of the Maoists bigwigs was never confirmed earlier, the police said. The police couldn’t find any weapons from the four tents erected by the Maoists in the area. The only one found was a loaded pistol in the hand of the body of Devaraj.
An Amazon Kindle E-Reader was also found near his body. There are five cases registered against Devaraj in various police stations in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the police said. The busted camp is believed to be the base of Western Ghats Special Zonal committee of the CPI (Maoist) which is also called Nadukani Dalam. The Thunderbolt commandos and Anti-Naxal Squad of the police were on high alert after the Maoist firing against the police in Mundakkadavu tribal colony in September.
