The paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Friday expressed indignation over doubts expressed in various quarters over the genuineness of the gunfight that killed top Maoist leader Kishenji and claimed it was a 'clean operation'.
"When we die in large numbers, it is a fair deal. But when we take them on, it is a fake encounter," said CRPF Director General K. Vijay Kumar who visited the spot in West Midnapore district's Burishol forest where Kishenji alias Koteshwar Rao's body was found on Thursday.
The CRPF was responding to claims of torture and custodial killing emerging from various quarters.
On Friday, the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) alleged that its leader was 'tortured and brutally killed' after his arrest.
"This murder looks much similar to that of (CPI-Maoist spokesman) Azad's in July 2010 when he was brutally tortured and killed while he was dealing with the union government through (an) interlocutor," it said.
'Human intelligence and infighting helped'
Officials also revealed that it was human intelligence and infighting among Naxalite cadres helped security forces eliminate the dreaded Maoist commander.
Taking full advantage of the intenal bickering among Naxals, the security forces were able to penetrate into the cadres of the CPI (Maoists) which gave significant inputs about the movement of Kishenji, the sources said.
"The security forces followed the inputs and after meticulous planning tracked down Kishenji and killed him in an encounter. In the whole operation, human intelligence played a significant role," a source said.
The old suspicion that Maoist leadership has been exploiting women cadres has also been proved correct during the operation as it has been found that Kishenji was moving around and living with Suchitra, the wife of slain ultra leader Sasadhar Mahato, the sources said.
They said though security personnel were sure that the slain Maoist was indeed Kishenji, they were yet to declare it formally as they were waiting for his family members to arrive from Andhra Pradesh to identify the body.
The latest photographs of the Maoist leader sent by the Home Ministry match the body, they said.
Sources said the West Bengal and Central forces were following Kishenji for quite some time after getting information about him and yesterday's encounter was the result of that effort.
'The encounter was fake'
Meanwhile, family members of the slain Maoist have alleged that he was killed in a 'fake' encounter and have also demanded that his body be handed over to them for performing last rites.
Talking to the media at Peddapalli, Anjaneyulu, elder brother of Kishenji, maintained the killing was result of a conspiracy hatched by the West Bengal and Central Governments.
Anjaneyulu alleged his brother was killed in a 'fake' gunbattle. He appealed to Government to handover the Maoist leader's body for cremation at his native place.
The body of Kishenji was first taken to Jhargram hospital morgue and then to the Midnapore police morgue for post-mortem. After coming to know about the death of the top Maoist leader, his relatives and friends visited his house.
Meanwhile, police are maintaining strict vigil in the district after the killing of Kishenji.