A senior Maoist leader, identified as Narasimha Chalam alias Gautam alias Sudhakar, has been killed in a joint security operation in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district. The encounter occurred in the Indravati National Park area, a known Maoist stronghold. This operation is part of an ongoing effort to curb insurgent activities in the region.

The security forces involved in the operation included personnel from the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG), and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), an elite unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The operation was launched based on intelligence inputs regarding the presence of senior Maoist cadres in the area.

Sudhakar, who carried a reward of ₹40 lakh to ₹1 crore on his head, was a member of the Maoists' Central Committee, the topmost governing body of the outlawed CPI (Maoist). He was also in-charge of RePOS (Revolutionary Political School) and Central Regional Bureau (CRB). He was wanted in multiple cases across Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. Police stated that Sudhakar was involved in the indoctrination and radicalization of youth and responsible for numerous Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh, resulting in the death of civilians and security personnel.

The killing of Sudhakar comes on the heels of other recent successes against Maoist leadership. Earlier this year, on May 21, CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed in an encounter in the Narayanpur-Bijapur border. In another operation, Mailarapu Adelu alias Bhaskar, a key figure within the outlawed group, was killed in an encounter near Bijapur.

These operations are part of a broader strategy to eliminate Naxalism in the region. Government figures indicate that more than 403 Maoist cadres have been neutralized in the Bastar division since January of last year. In 2025, 203 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh, with 186 of them in the Bastar division. The government has set a goal to make the country Maoist-free by March 2026.

Following Sudhakar's death, security forces recovered an AK-47 and a large cache of explosives from the encounter site. The operation is still underway, and authorities are withholding additional details to ensure the safety of the personnel involved in the combing operation.