Who was Chalapathi, top naxal leader with bounty of Rs 1 crore, who was killed in Chhattisgarh encounter?

Hyderabad: While the killing of 14 Maoists on the Chhattisgarh border in a fierce gun battle on Monday night is seen as a major win for security forces, the death of the top Maoist leader, Chalapathi, alias Appa Rao, in the encounter is being viewed as a major blow to the ultras.

Known as the master military strategist in his 60s, Chalapathi had a bounty of a staggering Rs 1 crore. Chalapathi not only provides assault strategies but also serves as an intellectual source for many young Maoists.

He was born in Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh and joined the Maoist movement approximately 27 years ago. He used to look at the operations in the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) and is now a Central Committee (CC) member of CPI Maoist, the highest decision-making body of the outlawed outfit. His wife, Aruna, is also a Maoist.

“He has been playing truant with the security forces for some time. He is excellent at tactical assaults, and he was behind many Maoist operations in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. The Rs 1 crore bounty on him demonstrates the importance of Chalapathi. A few years ago, on the AOB, our forces had almost captured him, but he gave a miss. Now, it's a big achievement for the security forces and a deadly blow to the ultras,” a senior police official who worked in AOB in the past in anti-Naxal operations told DH.

A selfie with his wife, Aruna, helped the anti-Naxal elite force identify Chalapathi in 2018. In one of the encounters in AOB, security forces recovered some material from the gunned Maoists. Among the materials they found was a smartphone.

In the phone. they found a selfie of Chalapthi with his wife Aruna. Until then, police had a photo of Chalapathi taken in the 1990s and didn't know how he looked later in his 50s. That selfie has helped security forces re-establish Chalapathi's identity.

Being a CC member, Chalapathi carried an AK-47 rifle and also had always been under the security of 12 to 15 guards.