Eight Naxalites of the CPI (ML) Chandra Pulla Reddy (Bata), a recently floated Left-wing group, were killed in an “encounter” on Thursday in the Gangaram forest area of Tekulapally mandal, considered a traditional stronghold of Naxalites.
The incident drew condemnation from various other Left-wing organisations, which termed it as a “fake encounter” and sought a judicial probe into it.
The relatively new outfit suffered a severe jolt with the killing of its “underground squad” leader Etti Kumar alias Rakhi, 35, of Marrigudem in Kothagudem division and seven members of the dalam, sources said.
A police team came under fire from a group of armed persons clad in olive green uniform during a combing operation in the forest area under Bodu police station limits in the early hours of the day, said Superintendent of Police Ambar Kishor Jha.
The police returned fire in self-defence and as many as eight armed cadres of the outfit were found dead at the encounter site soon after the firing stopped, Mr. Jha told reporters later in the day.
Six weapons, ammunition, revolutionary literature were recovered from the encounter site.
The armed cadres of the CP (Bata) group were involved in a slew of offences including extortion cases under various police station limits in Yellandu sub-division, he said.
CPI (ML-ND) senior leader and former Yellandu MLA Gummadi Narsaiah alleged that the cadres were apprehended elsewhere and “bumped off in a fake encounter.” The incident exposed the hollowness of the earlier claims of the government that Telangana would be “free of encounters,” he said, alleging that the State was witnessing a brutal repression against those waging mass movements, more severe than the “Emergency period” of the 1970s.
In a statement, CPI district secretary B. Hemantha Rao demanded that a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge be ordered into the killing.
