The death of Munna, son of CPI (Maoist)’s central committee member Ramakrishna, and of another key member of top leader’s security cordon Rhino in Monday’s alleged encounter near Panasput village under the Chitrakonda police station limits in Malkangiri district of Odisha was confirmed on Tuesday.
Twenty four Maoists and an AP Greyhounds commando were killed in the attack carried out by the elite anti-Naxal police wings, Gredyhounds of AP and Odisha’s Special Operation Group.
Superintendents of Police of Malkangiri and Visakhapatnam Mitrabhanu Mohapatra and Rahul Dev Sharma respectively confirmed that Munna and Rhino, also an area committee member, were among the dead.
“We had some doubts about identity of Munna, but as per our records and surrendered Maoists, we confirmed that it was Munna,” Mr. Sharma said.
So far 13 of the 24 bodies had been identified. They were Bakuri Venkataramana alias Ganesh alias Prasad, member of east division committee of the State zonal committee (SZC); Chamella Krishna alias Daya, member of the SZC from the Koraput-Srikakulam division; divisional committee secretary Gamelli Kesava Rao alias Birsu; Ainaparthi Dasu alias Madhu, divisional committee member (tech team of West Godavari); Latha alias Padma, divisional committee member (DCM) and wife of Mahender SZCM of Hyderabad area; Rajesh alias Bhimal, DCM from Chhattisgarh; Boddu Kundanalu alias Mamta, DCM and wife of Suresh SZCM of Srikakulam area; Yamalapalli Simhachalam alias Murali alias Hari, DCM of Vizianagaram district; Swarna alias Swaroopa alias Ricky, DCM; Swetha ACM of Pedabayalu; Budri, ACM of Chhattisgarh and key members in RK’s security cordon, Munna and Rhino.
Mr. Mohapatra said the post-mortem on the bodies was conducted at the SP’s camp office and they were shifted to the mortuary at the Government Hospital. The family members of the identified Maoists had been informed and the police would wait for 72 hours for them to claim the bodies and perform the final rites. If no one turns up, the bodies would be buried according to the court guidelines.
The process of identifying the remaining bodies was on and if they could not be identified in 72 hours they too would be buried, Mr. Mohapatra said. “They look to be small time cadres or those who have recently joined or are from Chhattisgarh region. And that is why we do not have any records. But efforts are on to identify them,” he said.
