A senior woman Naxalite carrying a collective bounty of ₹45 lakh in two states was killed in an encounter with security forces in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Monday.
The body of the woman Naxalite, identified as Gummadiveli Renuka, was recovered from the encounter site along with an Insas rifle.
The gun battle broke out at around 9 am in a forest along the border of Dantewada and Bijapur districts, when a team of security forces was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, Dantewada Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Rai said.
The operation was launched in the forested hills of Nelgoda, Ikeli and Belnar villages along the border of Geedam (Dantewada) and Bhairamgarh (Bijapur) based on inputs about the presence of Naxalites, Rai said.
Who was Gummadiveli Renuka?
Gummadiveli Renuka was a senior Naxalite cadre. She was a law graduate and was active in the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) since 1996.
She was carrying a reward of ₹25 lakh in Chhattisgarh and ₹20 lakh in Telangana.
Renuka was also known by aliases Bhanu, Chaite, Saraswati and Damyanti.
She was a resident of Kadvaendi village in Warangal in Telangana.
She got married in 2005 to Shankamuri Apparao alias Ravi, a central committee member who was killed in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh in 2010.
Renuka was a member of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, which is considered as the strongest formation of Maoists.
She was in-charge of the press team of Central Regional Bureau (CRB) of the outlawed Maoist movement.
Sundarraj P, Bastar Range Inspector General of Police, said: “A law graduate, Renuka had joined the outlawed outfit in 1996 and was elevated to divisional committee member (DVCM) rank in 2003. She had worked with senior Maoists like special zonal committee (SZC) member Krishna Anna in Andhra Pradesh, central committee member Dula Dada and SZC member Ramanna.”
In 2020, Renuka was elevated as an SZC member and made the press team in-charge in CRB after Ramanna died due to Covid-19.
Renuka’s brother GV Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi, a SZC member, had surrendered in 2014 in Telangana.
