At least 27 Maoists were eliminated on Wednesday in an encounter with the security forces at the Narayanpur-Bijapur border in Chhattisgarh, allegedly including key Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, as reported by PTI. The encounter was carried out in the Abujhmad forests of Chhattisgarh.
Who was Basavaraju?
Basavaraju became the leader of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in 2018. Basavaraju, who was around 70, carried a bounty of over Rs 1 crore on his head. He was one of the most wanted men for the NIA as he was an explosives expert who prepared IEDs that were employed to ambush the security forces. He was also wanted for his key role in leading the attacks at Chintalnar in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed along with the 2013 ambush at Jhiram Ghati where a Congress convoy comprising state party leaders were stabbed and gunned down.
Hailing from the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, he joined the party in early 1980s after getting a Btech degree from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Keshavrao was one of the several students at NIT, which was earlier known as Regional Engineering College (REC) who got influenced by the communist ideology and carried on to join the movement.
He was a key figure in the formation of the CPI-ML (people’s War) and mainly operated in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and some regions of Maharashtra. The merger of the CPI-ML with CPI (M) led to his appointment as the secretary of the central military commission in 2004.
Basavaraju is also said to have masterminded the killing of Araku Telugu Desam Party MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and ex-MLA Siveri Soma on September 23, 2018.
