The second ‘Maoist’, who was killed in Sunday’s ‘encounter’ in Puttapadu forest area near the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, has been identified as 20-year-old Sodi Mada, a militia member of the outlawed outfit.
Police sources said the deceased hailed from Puttapadu village in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.
CPI (Maoist) Charla Local Organising Squad (LOS) commander Madakam Yerraiah alias Rajesh, 28, was the other Maoist killed in the ‘exchange of fire’.
The bodies of the duo were handed over to their relatives after autopsy at the mortuary in the government area hospital in Bhadrachalam on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Charla police in coordination with the CRPF stepped up combing operations in the forest region spread along the restive Telangana-Chhattisgarh border following the incident.
Police heightened vigil in the forest fringe areas along the inter-State border to pre-empt retaliatory acts if any by the rebels in the volatile forested border region.
In a statement purportedly issued by the CPI (Maoist) Bhadradri-Kothagudem Alluri Sitarama Raju (BK-ASR) division committee, its secretary Azad condemned the Puttapadu incident terming it as a ‘fake encounter’.
