Top Maoist leader Kishenji killed in Jungle Mahal encounter

Elusive Maoist top gun Kishenji was on Thursday killed in an encounter with joint forces at Burisole forest in West Midnapore district, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.

The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, was found and identified after the Jungle Mahal encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.

After receiving specific information that he and some of his associates and Suchitra Mahato, the wife of a slain leader he was living with, were hiding in the Kushboni jungle, the area was cordoned off and an encounter ensued after breaking the four tiers of security that Kishenji had, the official said.

It was from Kushboni forest that the Maoist politburo member and Suchitra had eluded the joint forces on Wednesday.

Kishenji was the second in-command of the outfit and in-charge of military operations in Jungle Mahal since 2009.

The encounter which began on Thursday morning at Burisole jungle in Jamboni police station area was close to Kushboni near the Jharkhand border.

The official said Kishenji's body was identified by the AK-47 rifle he was carrying.

Suchitra and others fled the scene.

A laptop bag, some letters written by Kishenji and Suchitra and a few important documents were earlier seized by the joint forces from Gosaibandh village nearby.