Jharkhand: Maoist leader carrying Rs 1 crore reward among 15 killed in gunfight with security forces

A key leader of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) carrying a Rs 1 crore reward on his head was among 15 suspected Maoists killed in a gunfight with security forces in the Saranda forest area of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district on Thursday, The Hindu reported.

Anal alias Patriam Manjhi alias Toofan Da, a central committee member of the banned group, had been on the radar of security forces since 1987.

He, along with 15 others, was killed in the gunfight near Kumbhdih village under the Chotanagra police station limits during a special operation being conducted by the Central Reserve Police Force’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, or the CoBRA unit, and the district police, The Indian Express reported.

The operation was continuing on Friday.

Jharkhand Inspector General (Operations) Michaelraj S said that the gunfight began around 6.30 am. He alleged that the suspected Maoists started firing indiscriminately and the security forces retaliated in self-defence, The Hindu reported.

The police officer added that 15 bodies and a large quantity of weapons had been recovered so far.

“Preliminary investigations have identified 11 of the 15 deceased Maoists, including Anal, who was not only carrying a reward of Rs 1 crore in Jharkhand but Rs 1.2 crore reward in Odisha and Rs 15 lakh reward by the National Investigation Agency,” The Hindu quoted Michaelraj as saying.

The inspector general added that there were 149 cases filed against Anal in Jharkhand’s Giridih district. He claimed that the Maoist leader had been responsible for explosions and violent acts carried out by the banned group in the Saranda forest area of Kolhan in Chaibasa since 2022.

Apart from Anal, others killed included Anmol Da alias Lalchand Hembram, who was a member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)’s Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee, and carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh in Jharkhand and Rs 65 lakh in Odisha, the newspaper reported.

Hembram, who was a resident of Bokaro district in Jharkhand, had 149 cases against him.

Amit Munda, a member of the banned group’s regional committee, who was also killed, carried a reward of Rs 15 lakh in Jharkhand, Rs 43 lakh in Odisha and Rs 4 lakh from the NIA. There were 96 cases against him.

Sub-Zonal Committee member Pintu Lohra, who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh in Jharkhand and had 47 cases against him, was among the dead, along with Laljit alias Lalu, who also carried a similar reward.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the ongoing operation had achieved a major success “in the campaign to make the region free of Naxals through encounters, with the neutralization of the notorious bounty-wanted Naxal Central Committee member ‘Anal alias Patiram Manjhi’ worth Rs 1 crore and 15 other Naxals so far”.

“I once again appeal to the remaining Naxals to abandon the ideology that connects to violence, terror, and arms, and join the mainstream of development and trust,” he added.

The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

Between January 17 and January 18, six suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. On January 15, 54 Maoists surrendered before security forces in Bijapur. Forty-nine of them carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 1.4 crore.

On January 3, 14 suspected Maoists were killed in two separate gunfights with security forces in the state’s Sukma and Bijapur districts.

On December 16, the Union government told Parliament that 335 “Left-wing extremists” had been killed, while 2,167 others had surrendered in 2025. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that 942 Left-wing extremists had been arrested this year.

Overall, more than 1,800 such persons had been killed, over 16,000 had been arrested, while at least 9,588 others had surrendered since 2014.

In October, the Union home ministry said that the number of districts across states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts came down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

In the course of the Union government’s anti-Maoist offensive in 2025, key Maoist leaders like Uike and Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure, alias Anant, and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi, have surrendered.

A report by Malini Subramaniam for Scroll on Hidma’s killing noted that in the Andhra Pradesh village closest to where he was killed, no one heard gunfire.

She had earlier reported 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.

Civil liberties groups and Opposition parties have also questioned some of these killings, alleging that they constitute “fake encounters”.