26 Maoists killed in Maharashtra encounter

Nagpur/Mumbai: At least 26 Maoists were killed on Saturday in an encounter with police in eastern Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, over 900 km from Mumbai, senior officials said.

Notorious Naxal operative Milind Teltumbde, who is also an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, has been killed in the encounter, sources said. He was accused in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima caste riots case. Teltumbde was a Central committee member of the CPI (Maoist).

"We have recovered the bodies of 26 Naxals so far from the forest," said district Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal.

The gunbattle took place in the morning at Korchi in Mardintola forest area when a C-60 police commando team was conducting a search operation led by additional SP Soumya Munde, Goyal said. Goyal said the encounter has been going on for hours and that the casualties inflicted on the opposite side is a 'big achievement for the force'. Four police personnel were also seriously injured in the action and were taken to Nagpur by a helicopter for treatment, officials had said earlier.

The district is on the border of Chhattisgarh.