Vanjam Budhu, wanted Maoist carrying reward of Rs 1 lakh, shot dead in Chhattisgarh's Sukma

One Maoist was shot dead in an encounter with the District Reserve Guard (DRG) in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma on Thursday. Identified as Vanjam Budhu, the Nilamadgu RPC (Revolutionary People's Committee) in-charge and Jan Militia commander was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head.

"One naxal, identified as Vanjam Budhu, Nilamadgu RPC (Revolutionary People's Committee) in-charge and Jan Militia commander, carrying reward of Rs 1 lakh has been killed by District Reserve Guard (DRG) during encounter in Sukma earlier today," the news agency ANI reported.

Chhattisgarh: One naxal, identified as Vanjam Budhu, Nilamadgu RPC (Revolutionary People's Committee) in-charge and Jan Militia commander, carrying reward of Rs. 1 lakh has been killed by District Reserve Guard (DRG) during encounter in Sukma earlier today.

— ANI (@ANI) June 27, 2019

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Earlier in the day, the DRG team launched a search operation following certain inputs about the presence of Maoists in the forests between Murliguda and Atkal, Shalabh Sinha, SP, Sukma said. The search operation turned into a gun battle after the rebels opened fire on the DRG team to which they retaliated. Apart from the Maoist body, the DRG also recovered a weapon, some surgical items along with a bag of medicines from the region.

The operations against the red rebels have been very successful over the last few months with several Maoists killed in over 20 encounters in the year 2019. Areas that suffer the Maoist insurgency most include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal and some of the eastern Uttar Pradesh states.