Malkangiri encounter: Maoist leader RK ‘badly injured’
Police officials said RK, a central committee member of CPI(Maoist), has fled to Dandakaranya forests in Chhattisgarh.
Top Maoist leader Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna alias RK, who had gone missing after the October 24 encounter in Malkangiri’s cut-off area, suffered major injuries in the gunfight, a woman Maoist who surrendered early this week has said.
Dhanmati Bhaja of Dabuguda village in the cut-off area in Malkangiri, who was at the district headquarter hospital after taking a bullet in her calf, has told police about RK’s injuries. Bhaja, in her twenties, was a militia member of the Kudumulgumma committee of the Maoists.
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Police officials said RK, a central committee member of CPI(Maoist), has fled to Dandakaranya forests in Chhattisgarh. Last week, Maoist spokesperson Bhumika too had confirmed in an audiotape that RK had been shifted to Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee from Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee, of which he was secretary for over a decade.
In a related development, a group of 26 students of Osmania University, University of Hyderabad, English and Foreign Languages University, Kakatiya University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Jadavpur University addressed a press meet at Paderu in Visakhapatnam Thursday and raised questions on the police version of the encounter.
Sathish Kumar, a research scholar from English and Foreign Language University, told The Indian Express that the police version was riddled with holes. “At the encounter spot, we found several signs of explosion. The local villagers said they heard a massive explosion. It’s possible that police used bombs against the Maoists,” he said.
“Police also fired at homes of the local villagers. We saw several bullet marks,” he said, alleging that several tribals in the area had gone missing after the encounter.
The students also met the family member of Greyhound Commando Abu Baker, who died during the encounter, he said. The team would release a report on their fact finding trip in the next 10 days. “We have written to DGPs of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha demanding a fair probe into the incident,” Kumar said.
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