Six days after top Maoist leader Satish fell to police bullets in Rayagada district, the Orissa police on Thursday night killed Maoist couple Chitrakam Reddy and his wife during an encounter in Badmathur forest in Koraput district.
Chitrakam alias Sitru, 30, was allegedly involved in at least 10 cases of murder, besides loot, extortion, arson. According to sources, the police raided the Badmathur forest following concrete intelligence inputs that the rebels were running a training camp there and planning to launch a major offensive against security personnel deployed in the region.
While most of the cadres fled in the dark of the night, Chitrakam and his wife were killed in the gunbattle. “The exchange of fire lasted for two hours. The couple was killed on the spot,” Koraput superintendent of police Anup Kumar Sahu said.
Chitrakam was the Communist Party of India (Maoist) area commander of the Jhanjabati-Srikakulam division that operates in parts of Koraput district and Vijayanagaram area of Andhra Pradesh.