Maoists kill trader in Vizag Agency

He was branded a police informer

Maoists allegedly killed Gompa Lova Raju (30), a non-tribal, after branding him a police informer near Korukonda village in the limits of the Annavaram police station, Chintapalli mandal, late on Sunday night.

The bullet-riddled body of Raju was noticed by the villagers on Monday.

Lova Raju, who had settled down in Annavaram, was into trading of coarse grains and cereals. His family moved from the plains over two decades ago, said Chintapalli DSP Anil Kumar.

On Sunday, about 30 Maoists of Korukonda dalam, in uniform, reached the shandy and singled out Lova Raju.

They forced him to accompany them and later reportedly killed him.

In the poster left behind, the Maoists blamed him for the Luvasingi (G. Madugula mandal) exchange of fire in which two Maoists were killed in 2012.

They claimed that the police had reached the encounter site based on the information given by Lova Raju.

However, the police said Lova Raju was just a trader and the Maoists were aiming soft targets to make their presence felt in the Agency belt.

Second incident

This was the second incident in the last one week. On last Wednesday, the Maoists torched a BSNL cell tower in Darakonda village of GK Veedhi mandal.

In the first week of September, the Maoists set afire four earth-moving equipment in G Madugula mandal in the Visakhapatnam Agency.

A senior police officer said the Korukonda and Galikonda dalams that had been lying low for some time were trying to regain their foothold in some mandals in the wake of the first anniversary of the Ramgarh or Ramaguda exchange of fire on October 24.

On October 24, the Maoists will be observing the anniversary of the EOF in which 30 Maoists, including top leaders, were killed in a single encounter by the Greyhounds at Ramgarh in the cut-off area of AOB.

DIG of Visakhapatnam (Range) Ch. Srikanth said the Maoists were resorting to such incidents and using them as a bait for a bigger strike against the security forces. “Ever since the Ramgarh incident, they have been planning a big strike against the security forces,” he said.