Kolkata, March 10: A top Maoist leader Shashadhar Mahato was killed in an encounter with CRPF in West Midnapore district, West Bengal today.
The encounter took place in Kapgari village in Binpur police station area of West Midnapore in West Bengal.
Mahato was the second-in-command to Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji, the topmost Maoist leader in West Bengal.
Mahato was the elder brother of arrested Naxal-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) leader Chhatradhar Mahato.
The CRPF recovered one AK-47 from the site and a massive search operation has been launched to track down the other Naxals accompanying Mahato. Officials suspect that several other Naxals, too, have been either injured or killed in the gunbattle.
Mahato is also suspected to be behind major Naxal attacks in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts and has been linked to the Gyaneshwari Exprtess train accident in which at least 149 people were killed.
He is also considered to the mastermind behind the attack on a Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Silda in West Midnapore district in which 24 security personnel were killed.
A state committee member and spokesperson of the Bihar-Jharkhand-Orissa regional committee of the Naxal, mahato carried a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head.
He was also responsible for organising and mobilising youth in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts of West Bengal.
