Maoist top gun Kishenji shot dead in Junglemahal

Elusive Maoist top gun Kishenji was today killed in an encounter with the joint forces at Burisole forest in West Midnapore district, a day after he narrowly escaped from there. The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, was found and identified after the Junglemahal encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.

After receiving specific information that he and some of his associates and Suchitra Mahato, the wife of a slain leader he was living with, were hiding in the Kushboni jungle, the area was cordoned off and an encounter ensued after breaking the four tiers of security that Kishenji had, the official said.

“Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely, 99 per cent it is Kishenji,” Union Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters reacting to reports about the killing of the Maoist leader. Singh said the home ministry has sent the latest photographs of the Maoist leader for comparison and final confirmation.

“We have said that we have to be certain before we declare. We have sent the latest photographs of Kishenji for comparison,” he said.

The home secretary said killing of Kishenji was a “huge set back for the Naxals as he was number three in the hierarchy of the CPI(Maoists)’’.  Singh said the West Bengal and Central forces were following Kishenji for quite some time after getting information about him and today’s encounter was the result of that effort.

The home secretary said joint operations against the Maoists will continue in West Bengal and other Naxal-affected states.

It was from Kushboni forest that the Maoist politburo member, the second in-command of the outfit and in-charge of military operations in Junglemahal since 2009, and Suchitra had eluded the joint forces yesterday.

The encounter which began this morning at Burisole jungle in Jamboni police station area was close to Kushboni near the the Jharkhand border.

The official said Kishenji’s body was identified by the AK-47 rifle he was carrying. Suchitra and others fled.

A laptop bag, some letters written by Kishenji and Suchitra and a few important documents were earlier seized by the joint forces from Gosaibandh village nearby.

PTI

Watch the CNN-IBN report on the death of Kishenji: