Ten Maoists, including Manoj alias Modem Balakrishna, a central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), were killed by security forces during an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Gariyaband district on Thursday (September 11, 2025). Manoj carried a bounty of ₹1 crore, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said.
Confirming Manoj’s death, Gariyaband Superintendent of Police Nikhil Rakhecha said an anti-Maoist operation was launched and till 7.20 p.m. on Thursday (September 11, 2025), 10 bodies were recovered and search operations were under way.
The police said that security personnel from the Special Task Force (STF, a unit of the State police), E-30 (a unit of the Gariyaband Police) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, an elite unit of the Central Reserve Police Force) were involved in the operation.
While Mr. Rakhecha did not divulge further details on Manoj, information received earlier this year suggested he had joined the Naxal movement in 1983 and was around 65 years old when he was gunned down on Thursday (September 11, 2025). He went by other aliases such as Balanna, Ramachander and Bhaskar and and was a central committee member as well as the in-charge of the CPI (Maoist)‘s western bureau of the Odisha State Committee (OSC).
Security sources further said that Manoj joined the Maoist movement after discontinuing an Intermediate course in Hyderabad and went to Bhadrachalam forests in 1983. He was arrested at least twice in undivided Andhra Pradesh in the late 1980s.
“In 1987, the Mahaboobnagar Police raided his room and arrested him. He was housed in Musheerabam Jail till January, 1990, when he was released in exchange for kidnapped Telugu Desam Party MLA Venkateswara Rao. He worked in the Hyderabad city area,” the source added.
As an active Maoist in the south Telangana region, he was arrested again in March 1993 in Kurnool district, and lodged in Chanchalguda Central Jail. He was released on conditional bail on August 18, 1999 and went underground.
The Central Committee is the highest decision-making body of the CPI (Maoist) and the latest development is another major blow to the banned outfit. Since the start of the year, six Central Committee members have been killed by the security forces in separate operations in Chhattisgarh (four), Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh (one each).
The list includes Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, the former general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), who was shot dead security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur in May. Another committee member Chalpathi alias Jairam was gunned down in Gariyaband, an insurgency affected area in Chhattisgarh outside the Naxal citadel of Bastar, in January.
With the latest operation, at least 241 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far in 2025. Of them, 212, including Basavaraju, were killed in the Bastar division while 27 others were gunned down in Gariyaband district.
In a post on X, Mr. Shah informed that Manoj carried a bounty of ₹1 crore while terming the latest operation a major success. “The remaining Naxalites should surrender. The complete eradication of red terror is certain before March 31st [2026],” the post further read.
Published – September 11, 2025 10:06 pm IST