4 Naxals held in Gadchiroli

The Gadchiroli police raided Botezari village here early on Thursday morning and nabbed four Naxalites,one of them brother-in-law of a prominent party functionary. Sadaram Narasimha Gawde,Gajru Dular Boga alias Naresh,Sundersinha Narasimha Helami alias Rakesh and an unidentified Naxal were caught after a small encounter. The police believe the unidentified Naxal,who is ailing,is from Chhattisgarh.

The raid is significant for many reasons Botezari lies in the Naxal fortress on Gadchiroli-Rajnandgaon border,that it was conducted at night when the police avoid Naxal areas and that effort to catch the Naxals alive was successful. Also,the action was carried out entirely by local police with no participation of the Central paramilitary forces.

We had concrete information on the Naxals staying in the village. A C-60 commando team led by a DSP reached the village and conducted the raid in the wee hours, DIG Sunil Ramanand said. We had an exchange of fire with them. When two of them started running away,we caught them. They led us to the other two.