Four Maoists were killed in an encounter with police and CRPF commandos along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border in Gadchiroli district. The encounter took place on Friday following a joint operation launched based on intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoist formations near a recently opened FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Kawande area. The exchange of fire lasted for nearly two hours, and security forces recovered bodies of the four Maoists, along with weapons, ammunition, and Naxal literature.
Acting on a specific input, the Raipur police apprehended the seer from a rented room near Bageshwar Dham, located around 25 km from Khajuraho town in MP, Raipur Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal said.
Two Union Ministers visited the family of a 23-year-old woman in Kothamangalam who allegedly took her own life due to harassment by her lover. The family is demanding an NIA probe into the incident, alleging forced religious conversion.
A joint team of the Border Security Force and the Chhattisgarh police on Friday busted a bomb-making unit of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist and seized around 300 kg of explosives and equipment used for assembling IEDs. A joint team of the BSF, Special Task Force and Kanker district police raided a Maoist hideout in the forest between Beenagunda and Uchhekoti villages in Abuzamad area, where they came under hostile fire, said Kanker district police chief.
The incident took place on Wednesday night in Tarrem area when a joint team of security personnel was returning after an anti-Maoist operation in forests on the tri-junction of Bijapur-Sukma-Dantewada districts, a police official said in Bijapur.
Qadri Javed Azad and Makwana Kumar are on a 2,000 km expedition from Porbandar to Pahalgam to spread the message of peace, unity and Operation Sindoor.
Heavy rainfall across North India leads to fatalities, structural damage, travel disruptions, and school closures. Eastern states brace for more rain.
Several police personnel were injured in the stone pelting, an official said, adding Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai was briefed on the situation by the chief secretary and the DGP.
If the threat from the 'Maovadis' (Maoists) is fading, the danger now lies with the 'MoUvadis' -- those who might exploit the resource-rich Abujhmad region through corporate or State-backed projects.
Setting up new camps of security forces in these villages in the last seven months has been paving the way for development of the respective areas, they said.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the vice-presidential election. The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Referring to the enactment of the Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Armed Police Force Act, 2011 which created a trained force to aid and assist the security forces in maintaining law and order in the state, the bench said in its view it cannot be said to be an act of contempt of the order of 2011 passed by this court.
The Maharashtra government plans to introduce a stringent anti-conversion law in the winter session of the legislature, with provisions stricter than those in other states.
A hill with an altitude of 5,000 feet, once a hub of the Maoists along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, was reclaimed by the security forces after driving out the extremists following nine days of intense anti-Naxal operation, official sources said.
The injured, labourers from Chhattisgarh, were rushed to a nearby hospital and are said to be out of danger. They have suffered a fracture in their legs, police said.
The Naxalites carrying sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles, targeted the two unarmed cops when they had just reported for duty at the mobile check-post on the inter-state border, an area that has witnessed a Maoist attack after a long time, they said.
Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, the powerful general secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist killed in an encounter along with 26 others on Wednesday, had masterminded several major attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh and his death is a big blow to the armed movement, said officials.
With this, the number of Maoists killed in the gun battle with the security personnel on Friday has risen to 31, they said, adding that a search operation is still underway in the area.
The Chhattisgarh police has arrested two people in connection with a Rs 20-crore burglary from a jewellery store in Delhi earlier this week and recovered around 18.5 kg of gold and diamond ornaments from them, a senior official said on Friday, even as the probe suggested involvement of only one person in the incident.
Charan Das Mahant, who is one of the star campaigners of the party, sparked controversy at a public rally in Rajnandgaon on Tuesday when he stated that they needed someone who could hold a stick and confront Modi.
The Delhi Police Special Cell arrested a man from Hyderabad for allegedly trafficking Indian youths and forcing them to work in fake call centres engaging in cyber fraud. The arrest came after a 2,500-kilometre non-stop chase, an officer said. The accused, Kamran Haider alias Zaidi, carried a reward of Rs 2 lakh on information leading to his arrest, declared by the National Investigation Agency. Zaidi was apprehended near Nampally Railway Station, Hyderabad, Telangana while trying to escape to another hideout.
The troops of 209 Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) conducted the operation in which eight Naxals were killed and an AK series rifle, three INSAS rifles, a self-loading rifle (SLR), eight country-made guns and a pistol were seized, the officials said.
The vehicle skidded off the road and fell into the gorge.
More than two decades after deserting their village due to Maoists, around 25 tribal families are planning to return to their native place in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
A 45-year-old man in Chhattisgarh's Raipur allegedly killed his 70-year-old mother after she refused to give him Rs 200 to buy a dog. The accused, Pradeep Dewangan, also injured his wife during the attack. Police are searching for the accused and have registered a murder case.
The Chhattisgarh police have arrested two persons and recovered around 18.5 kg of gold and diamond ornaments in connection with a burglary of jewellery worth over Rs 20 crore from a store in New Delhi earlier this week, a senior official said on Friday.
The security forces had received inputs about the presence of cadres belonging to company no. 5 of Maoists in Bhomra, Hurtarai and Michchebeda villages, he said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted a massive search operation at 15 locations in eight states across the country in a Pakistan-linked espionage case.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
A CoBRA commando of the CRPF, who was fatally shot by a Maoist sniper while establishing a new base in Chhattisgarh, was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India's third highest peacetime gallantry medal. Constable Pawan Kumar and Constable Devan C, both from the 201 CoBRA battalion, were recognized for their bravery and courage in the face of a Naxal attack. In addition to the two posthumous awards, five other CRPF personnel received the Shaurya Chakra for their roles in two separate operations against Naxals.
Former MLA Ram Dayal Uikey, the BJP nominee from Pali-Tanakhar seat in Korba district, was present in the vehicle when the cash was seized from there, the police official said.
In a separate incident, a commando of the Central Reserve Police Force's jungle warfare unit CoBRA was injured when a pressure improvised explosive device (IED), planted by Naxalites went off in the district, police said.
Altogether seven firearms have been recovered from the encounter site, he said.
Three security personnel suffered injuries in the fierce gun-battle and a large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the spot, the state police said.
A 'fake' cardiologist, Narendra Yadav alias Narendra John Camm, and a Bilaspur hospital have been booked for culpable homicide over the death of former Chhattisgarh assembly speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla 19 years ago. Yadav, who was arrested over the death of seven patients after botched surgeries at a hospital in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, had operated on Shukla at the private facility in Bilaspur, following which the ex-speaker died in 2006. Yadav's degree has been found to be fake, and his registration with the Indian Medical Council/Chhattisgarh Medical Council has not been traced. Police are investigating the case.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
Maoists have admitted that 28 cadres, including their top leader Basavaraju, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region last week. The Naxals also claimed that some of their cadres had surrendered to police and provided information that led to the operation. Police have recovered a large cache of weapons, including an AK-47 looted by Basavaraju from security forces in a 2010 ambush.
"Ranjan is absconding and efforts are on to trace him," Raipur's Senior Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal told PTI.
Eight Naxalites and a jawan of the Special Task Force (STF) were killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Saturday, police said.
The Maoist blast took place around 3 pm near Timmapuram village between Silger and Tekalgudem camps of security forces, over 400 km from the state capital Raipur.
