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Narayanpur: At around 7am on Wednesday, a sentry of the CPI (Maoist) stumbled upon a jawan of the DRG force in the dense forests of Abujmad leading to an intense gun battle which culminated in the killing of the senior most CPI (Maoist) leader Nambala Keshav Rao or Basavaraju.
The details of the operation emerged days after the key victory for the security forces.
A senior official of Bastar said that for over three months, the Narayanpur Police’s anti-Naxal wing had been meticulously piecing together a puzzle of senior Maoist leader hidden deep in the jungles of Abujhmad.
Abujhmad till 2023 was considered as a safe haven for senior Maoist leaders because of difficult terrain and dense forest.
They began by tracing surrendered Maoists—specifically those who had once roamed the dense interiors of Abujhmad and had begun turning themselves in across various districts.
“Each surrender brought a story, each story a thread. The police scanned every interrogation report, combing through details for clues that could reveal the patterns of senior Maoist leaders’ shelter and movements—especially those of Basavaraju, a top commander long protected by PLGA’s elusive Company No. 7,” said the officer.
The surrendered cadres of Company 7, trained to protect leaders like Basavaraju, were interrogated thoroughly by Narayanpur police.
Many attempted to mislead investigators—twisting facts, offering decoys, and feeding false trails but the anti-Naxal wing led by superintendent of police (SP) Prabhat Kumar launched operations on every single tip-off, refusing to back down or abandon a lead, no matter how faint.
“Operation after operation slowly began to squeeze the space in which the Maoists could operate. The vast, unchallenged forest terrain of Abujhmad began to shrink,” the officer added.
On Monday, acting on a fresh local input—unrelated to the broader surveillance plan—the DRG mobilised from bordering Bijapur, Dantewada and Narayanpur district, engaged four times with Maoists. But, Basavraju managed to escape.
On Tuesday, the intense search operation continued but they found nothing.
On Tuesday evening, four elite units of District Reserve Guard (DRG) camped silently under the dense jungle.
“What we didn’t know was that barely a kilometer to the north, Basavaraju himself had also taken shelter for the night, surrounded by 25 armed cadres and another senior Maoist leader,” said a senior officer who was leading the DRG team.
Both groups—hunters and hunted—unaware of each other’s presence, settled in for the night.
At 7 am on Wednesday, a Maoist sentry patrolling the perimetre stumbled upon a DRG jawan who was leading a search.
In the sudden clash, the sentry stabbed the jawan with a rifle-mounted bayonet. The jawan resisted fiercely, and in the scuffle, a shot was fired.
Security forces advanced and Maoists scattered.
“The Maoists first ran south and saw one of the four teams. Reversing course, they fled north—only to run into the Eagle team. From a small plateau, the Maoists quickly regrouped and formed a defensive circle around a man the DRG immediately suspected was of high value,” said the officer who was present during the action.
From their elevated position, the Maoists returned fire. But DRG teams, undeterred, climbed the rocky rise under cover of bullets.
The gunfight continued for 30 intense minutes from both sides. Around 300 rounds were fired by the security forces.
“As soon as the old man guarded by the jawan was gunned down, the Maoists raised slogans –Laal Salam, PLGA zindabad and then started running in different directions to escape. But we surrounded them and all were gunned down,” said the officer.
When the smoke cleared and the search began, a former Maoist-turned-DRG jawan—who once served in Company No. 7 and surrendered in 2022—stepped forward.
Among the fallen, he immediately identified Basavaraju.
“It was a culmination of months of planning, interrogation, and relentless pursuit that had finally borne fruit. No one ever thought that Basavraju , the senior most Maoists will be gunned down like this,” said the officer.
