On Sunday, one of the biggest anti-Naxal operation got success for Gadchiroli police till date. According to the reports nearly 14 Maoists were killed in an encounter near Tadgaon village. Among the dead are Sinu, a divisional committee member from South Gadchiroli division of CPI (Maoist), and Perimili Dalam commander Sainath, who is also said to have been recently elevated as divisional committee member. Death of two divisional committee members in a single encounter is also a record.

It was the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Gadchiroli range) Ankush Shinde, who confirmed the casualties in his statement that is “We had the complete information about movement of Perimili Dalam near Tadgaon. So, Police had launched an operation on Today, around morning 9.30 am, an encounter ensued. Till now, we have recovered 14 bodies from the spot, which include Sainath and Sinu. This is the first time that two DVC members have been killed in one operation”.

The encounter of Sainath and Sinu takes the number of DVC members killed to three, apart from 17 Naxals gunned down this year. On April 3, Sunil Kulmethe, also a member of south Gadchiroli division, was killed in an encounter near Sironcha Rahul. Last year, 19 Naxalites were killed in Gadchiroli. The highest Naxal casualties in Gadchiroli was seven and it happened twice in 2013 in Korchi tahsil and 2017 in Sironcha tahsil. Director General of Police Satish Mathur congratulated the C-60 team which participated in the encounter.