A Maoist leader carrying a reward of Rs 1 crore on his head was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district on Monday morning, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Along with Sahadev Soren, a member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), two other suspected Maoists – Raghunath Hembram alias Chanchal and Birsen Ganjhu alias Ramkhelawan – were also killed during the gunfight.
In a social media post, Shah claimed that “Naxalism has been completely eradicated” from the Bokaro region in northern Jharkhand.
“Soon, the entire country will be free from the problem of Naxalism,” said the home minister.
The Union government has repeatedly vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.
On September 7, another Maoist commander, Amit Hansda alias Upton, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in West Singhbhum district.
Hansda, a zonal commander of the CPI (Maoist), reportedly carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.
Till July, 21 suspected Maoists have been killed across Jharkhand in 14 gunfights with security forces, The New Indian Express reported.
In the Bastar region of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, more than 400 suspected Maoists had been killed in 2024-’25, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had said in June.
In 2024, 217 suspected Maoists were killed by security forces across Chhattisgarh.
Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.
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