Naxal leader Milind Teltumbde wanted by NIA in Elgar Parishad case

Hardcore Naxal leader Milind Teltumbde, who has been shown as wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case, carries a reward of over Rs 50 lakh on his head.

Milind, who figures in the top list of Maoist hierarchy, is in his late fifties and has been absconding for several decades. Milind is an engineer by education - but he became an outlaw.

Milind is the brother of Dalit scholar and activist Prof Anand Teltumbde, who is an accused in the case.

Incidentally, Prof Anand Teltumbde is the brother-in-law of Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution. Prof Anand Teltumbde is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management. Before that, he was an executive at Bharat Petroleum and MD and CEO of Petronet India Ltd.

On his role, the NIA charge sheet states: “The absconding accused Milind Teltumbde also organised training camps for imparting weapons training to other accused persons.”

Milind is the Secretary of Maharashtra State Committee (MSC) of CPI (Maoist).

According to officials of the State Intelligence Department (SID) and Anti-Naxal Operations (ANO) of the Maharashtra Police, Milind used to be very active in the Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha region that borders Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

In fact, after the April 22-23, 2018, encounter in which 40 plus Naxals were killed in Gadchiroli district, a massive manhunt was launched to track down Milind, who originally hails from the Chandrapur district of Vidarbha region.

"Milind goes by various names like Dipak, Pravin, Arun and Sudhir," officials said, adding that he carries a reward of over Rs 50 lakh on his head.

According to Intelligence department sources, Milind could be hiding in the Bastar region.

It is suspected that the May 1, 2019 IED blast, in which 15 police and security personnel were killed in Kurkheda in Gadchiroli district, was planned by Milind and his core team.

Milind’s wife Angella Sontakke, who hails from Chandrapur, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2011. Sontakke is named in 20-odd offences, including the February 1, 2009, encounter that took place between Gyarpatti and Markegaon in Gadchiroli district, in which 15 policemen, including a Police Sub-Inspector, were killed.