Orissa encounter death sparks row

The encounter took place at Paikmal in Orissa’s Bargarh district bordering Chhattisgarh.

What has added fuel to the controversy is a claim by local BJP leaders that one of the two persons killed by the police, Madhav Singh Thakur, was not a naxalite but was an active member of the party and was heading its local unit in Paikmal.

The two were killed late on December 27 night when there was an exchange of fire between security personnel and armed Maoists during a joint combing operation launched by the Orissa police’s elite Special Operation Group and CRPF jawans in the area.

Subsequently, the two dead bodies had been identified as Thakur and one Ramesh Sahu, both residents of Temri village under Paikmal police station limits. The locals have further claimed that Thakur was not only a political activist but was also known in the area as a social worker.