C’garh: Telangana-born top Maoist leader, carrying Rs 45 lakh bounty, gunned down in Sukma, 8th high ranking Naxal leader slain in Bastar in last 15 months
Top Maoist leader Gumadiveli Renuka alias Bhanu, who carried cumulative bounties of Rs 45 lakh in two states, was on Monday gunned down in an encounter
Raipur: Top Maoist leader Gumadiveli Renuka alias Bhanu, who carried cumulative bounties of Rs 45 lakh in two states, was on Monday gunned down in an encounter with security forces in a forest along the borders of Dantewada and Bijapur districts in south Bastar of Chhattisgarh, police said.
The Telangana-born Maoist was the member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) of Naxals.
The widow of Shankamuri Appa Rao, who was the Central Committee (CC) member of Maoists, also headed the media wing of the Central Regional Bureau (CRB) of Maoists.
She carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh in Chhattisgarh and Rs 20 lakh in Telangana, police said.
She was killed in an encounter between Maoists and security forces in the forest near Nelgoda under Gidam police station in Dantewada district at around nine in the morning, Dantewada district superintendent of police Gaurav Rai said.
One INSAS assault rifle and explosives were also recovered at the encounter site.
“Renuka was the eighth state committee member level Maoist leader to have been killed in Bastar in the last 15 months”, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper.
Barring Sagar, who was the member of Telangana state committee of Maoists, other seven slain Naxal leaders were members of DKSZC, he said.
Sagar was killed in an encounter with security forces in Bijapur in south Bastar a few months ago.
The strength of DKSZC, considered the strongest formation of the Maoists in the country in terms of revenue generation, recruitments and cadre strength, has now been reduced to 13 following the killing of its seven members.
The revenue generated by DKSZC has also shrunk from Rs 1,300 crore in 2010 to barely around Rs 30 crore annually due to massive erosion of the base of Maoists in Bastar in the wake of establishment of 40 new security camps in the last 15 months, a senior police officer disclosed to this newspaper.
Renuka, a resident of Kadbendi under Devarapalli police station in Warangal district in Telangana, joined Maoist cadre in 1996 and rose to the rank of state committee member in the last three decades.
Her Maoist husband, Shankamuri Appa Rao, was killed in an encounter at Nalmella in Andhra Pradesh on March 12, 2010.
Her brother Gudsa Usendi alias GVK Prasad, who was a member of DKSZC, had surrendered in Hyderabad in 2014.
According to Mr. Sunderraj, a total 119 Maoists were killed in separate encounters in Bastar in 2025 so far.
