Security forces neutralised 10 Naxals, including a CPI (Maoist) member, in a major anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh’s Gariyaband district, according to a police official.
In a significant breakthrough for anti-Naxal operations, security forces have neutralised 10 Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district. Among those killed was a high-ranking CPI (Maoist) leader, identified as Manoj alias Modem Balkrishna, a central committee member of the banned outfit.
Chhattisgarh | 10 naxals, including CC member Manoj alias Modem Balkrishna, neutralised in exchange of fire between Security Forces and Naxals at Bhaludiigi hill, PS Mainpur, District Gariaband pic.twitter.com/BI0lGU077e
— ANI (@ANI) September 11, 2025
News Agency ANI Quoted Sp Rakhecha as saying that “10 Naxals, including CPI (Maoist) central committee member Manoj alias Modem Balkrishna, were neutralised by security forces.”
नक्सलियों के विरुद्ध हमारे सुरक्षा बलों ने आज एक और बड़ी उपलब्धि हासिल की है। छत्तीसगढ़ में CRPF की कोबरा कमांडो, छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस और DRG ने जॉइंट ऑपरेशन चलाकर ₹1 करोड़ के इनामी सीसीएम मोडेम बालकृष्णा उर्फ मनोज सहित 10 कुख्यात नक्सलियों को मारा गिराया है। समय रहते बचे-खुचे नक्सली…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 11, 2025
Inspector General of Police, Raipur Range, Amrish Mishra told Hindustan Times that the operation was launched on Wednesday night following intelligence inputs about the presence of a Central Committee member and his team in the jungles of Gariaband. The security team made contact with the Maoists on Thursday.
Beyond Balakrishna, the Maoist Central Committee has already lost several senior leaders this year. In May, Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraju, was killed in Abujhmad, Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. Another central figure Gautam alias Sudhakar a central committee member was killed in Bijapur. In Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitharama Raju district, Gajarla Ravi, also known as Uday-a Central Committee Member (CCM) and former secretary of the Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee-was neutralised. Earlier this year, Chalpathi, also known as Jairam, another central committee member carrying a ₹1 crore bounty, was killed along with 13 others in Gariaband.
Balakrishna, originally from Madikonda in Warangal district and a former resident of Sultanpura, Hyderabad, became involved in the Maoist movement in the early 1980s after being influenced by RSU leaders Sambamurthy and Santosh Reddy during his time at Malakpet Junior College. He joined the Maoist ranks full-time in 1983, heading to the Bhadrachalam forests.
His militant career involved several arrests: first in 1984 at Bhadrachalam, leading to imprisonment in Warangal Central Jail until 1986; again in 1987 in Mahaboobnagar, after which he was held in Musheerabad Jail until 1990 and released as part of a prisoner exchange following the abduction of TDP MLA Venkateswara Rao. He then resumed Maoist operations in Hyderabad.
Balakrishna steadily rose through the Maoist hierarchy-becoming Mahaboobnagar District Committee Secretary in 1991, a Regional Committee Member for South Telangana shortly after, and later arrested again in 1993 in Kurnool. After securing conditional bail in 1999, he went underground and eventually became the Secretary of the Odisha State Organising Committee.
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