NEW DELHI: CPI (Maoist) blamed the death of its chief Basavaraju on betrayal by some within its ‘core’ Naxal formations active in the Maad area, including the PLGA Company No. 7 that was tasked with his proximate security cover.The statement holding “compromised elements within” accountable for the killing of Basavaraju in Narayanpur, issued via its Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), came even as the Chhattisgarh Police conducted the last rites of the CPI(Maoist) general secretary and seven others on Monday in Narayanpur, citing the “lack of any clear legal claimant” to their bodies.CPI(Maoist) also admitted that 28, and not 27, “comrades” were killed in the operation, and pointed out mistakes in identification of two slain Maoists by police.Cops deny Reds’ claim Basavaraju was caught alive TOI had exclusively reported on Monday that the Chhattisgarh Police was not keen to hand over Basavaraju’s body to his kin or acquaintances for last rites in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, fearing that a public funeral would glorify the mastermind behind the killing of hundreds of civilians and security personnel. The bodies of the remaining 19 Maoists killed in the May 21 operation by the District Reserve Guard wing of the Chhattisgarh Police were, however, handed over to their family members.The DKSZC statement, dated May 25, and signed by ‘Vikalp’, blamed the “compromised” and “surrendered” leaders and cadre of units active in Maad for feeding the Chhattisgarh Police and intelligence agencies with constant updates on Basavaraju’s movements over the past six months. “The cadre from different units in the Maad area turned traitors and would share our secret messages with police. Operations based on their leaks were conducted in Jan and March to get to Basavaraju. Six more surrenders over the past one and half months, including by a top cadre in Basavaraju’s security detail, made the job of police easier,” it said.The CPI(Maoist) press note, while corroborating how DRG personnel cornered Basavaraju by breaching and neutralising his protection team, said the Maoist general secretary was captured alive and then killed, a claim rubbished by Bastar IG P Sundarraj. “The lie is a face-saver. The statement literally certifies our precise and perfectly-timed strike, how 28 of the 35 Maoists engaged ended up neutralised, and how it were the Maoists who killed a DRG personnel in the ‘first round of fire’ and another in an IED blast after the operation had ended,” he told TOI.
