Two alleged Maoists killed in Dantewada ahead of Assembly bypolls

india

Updated: Sep 14, 2019 09:37 IST

Ahead of Dantewada bypoll, police gunned down two alleged Maoists in an encounter under Kirandul police station on Friday night.

“We have recovered two bodies of Maoists and searching of the area is going on,” said SP Dantewada, Abhishek Pallava.

The SP further said that the exchange of fire with joint team of Dantewada district reserve guard (DRG) and Kirandul police took place in the jungles of Kutrem.

“The dead bodies of Lachu Mandavi, who was active member of Malangir local organisation squad (LOS ) and one Podiya, who was gumiyapal Janmilitia commander has been recovered,” said the SP.

Police have also recovered one .9mm pistol (country made) and 12 bore rifle from the spot.

The bypolls of Dantewada assembly are scheduled on September 23. The voters in the assembly are 1,88,263, out of which 89,747 are male voters and 98,876 are female voters.

The assembly constituency has a total of 273 polling centres.

In 2018, assembly election, BJP candidate, Bheema Mandavi defeated Congress leader Devati Karma with narrow margin.

On April 9, two days before the parliamentary elections in Bastar, Bhima Mandavi, and four other accompanying him in a convoy of vehicles were killed when Maoist rebels triggered an improvised explosive device (IED).