Hyderabad: The alleged encounter killing of a top Maoist from Telangana in the forests of adjoining Chhattisgarh is shrouded in mystery. A day after news broke of his death, there was palpable relief in his native village in Mulugu district that he was still alive, something which the local police could neither confirm nor deny.
Shivam Upadhyaya, the assistant superintendent of police of Telangana’s Eturnagaram – which is close to the border with Chhattisgarh – told The Wire that there was no confirmation about the killing of Bade Chokka Rao, secretary of the Telangana state committee of the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoist) in the encounter that was alleged to have taken place in the Poojari Kanker village located deep in the forests of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh on January 16.
Not denying the news entirely, Upadhyaya also said the police were still verifying if there were any Maoists from Telangana who died in the encounter, which was initially believed to have claimed 12 lives.
However, a press release by the CPI (Maoist) on the night of January 18 said 18 of its members had died.
The press release of the Maoist party signed by Ganga, the secretary of its south Bastar divisional committee, paid rich tribute to Chokka Rao and platform party committee member Narasimha Rao as members from Telangana “who were among 18 comrades to lay down their lives in the murders that resulted from state violence.”
Ganga blamed the ‘fascist government’ of Chhattisgarh and Union government security forces for carrying out a “cruel and inhuman” operation in Chhattisgarh at the instance of capitalists who aimed to exploit the region’s rich natural resources by displacing local tribals.
She also said about 5,000 police personnel led by Dantewada inspector general of police Kamlochan Kashyap and Bijapur superintendent of police Jitendra Yadav were involved in the operation.
“The forces also suffered heavy casualties as five of them were killed and dozens severely injured,” it said. But the security forces tried to hide their failures, the press release added.
In Kalvapalli, a different picture
When local mediapersons visited Kalvapalli village in Mulugu district’s Tadvai mandal on Monday (January 20) to verify the authenticity of Ganga’s statement, they were in for a surprise as Chokka Rao’s mother Batukamma denied that her son died.
An atmosphere of gloom that prevailed in the family on Sunday suddenly gave way to relief on the faces of its members as they rubbished the news. The police also shot it down, neither confirming nor denying Chokka Rao’s death.
Telangana Civil Liberties Committee president G. Laxman said that the news of Chokka Rao’s death was fake and cooked up by the government to cause mental anguish to the CPI (Maoist) cadre. “On the face of it [Ganga’s statement], we could tell it was fake,” he said.
Seelam Naresh alias Jampanna, a former north Telangana special zonal committee secretary of the People’s War Group (a hitherto Maoist group), attempted to clarify the confusion over Chokka Rao’s purported death in a statement today.
Unlike Chokka Rao’s family and Laxman, he said Chokka Rao was probably among six more Maoists who died while retreating from the battle zone with severe injuries. It was also possible that their comrades carried their dead bodies after the encounter, and therefore their deaths did not reach the police’s attention, he added.
At the same time, Naresh claimed, the police also did not commit itself to the killing of five security personnel and injuries to others because it believed the news would go against the government’s interests.
He also raised a suspicion that the news may have been part of a conspiracy by the government to show the Maoists in poor light.
Naresh is a surrendered Maoist who now lives a mainstream life in Hyderabad.
Chokka Rao hailed from a tribal family with deep roots in the Maoist movement. His cousin Bade Nageswara Rao was a central committee member of the party who was killed in an encounter in Mulugu over two decades ago.
Nageswara Rao’s brothers Murali and Rambabu were also senior functionaries of the party. Murali was killed in an encounter, while Rambabu also died, albeit from health reasons after surrendering to the police.
Interestingly, Eturnagaram assistant police superintendent Upadhyaya had met Chokka Rao’s mother a week ago to persuade her to appeal to her son to turn himself in to the police and claim the Rs 50 lakh reward on his head.
