Rampachodavaram: Police on Thursday said they have handed over the bodies of top Maoist leader Madvi Hidma and his wife Madakam Raje to their relatives here.
The couple was among a bunch of Maoists killed recently in an encounter in the state.
“We handed over the bodies of Hidma and his wife Raje to their relatives on Wednesday evening after the postmortem,” Rampachodavaram Deputy Superintendent of Police Sai Prashanth told PTI.
He said Hidma’s brother and cousin received the bodies after the completion of postmortem and other mandatory formalities.
Meanwhile, the Alluri Sitharama Raju district police said the successful execution of Operation SAMBHAV has dealt a major blow to Maoist activity in the Andhra Pradesh–Chhattisgarh–Odisha border region.
They said the elimination of key operatives and the seizure of arms, ammunition and explosives marked a significant step in weakening the insurgent network.
Madvi Hidma, who masterminded several attacks over the last two decades, was killed in an encounter in Andhra on Tuesday, a breakthrough the Chhattisgarh Police described as the “last nail in the coffin” of insurgency.
Security forces gunned down Hidma (51), his wife Madkam Raje, and four other Naxalites in the Maredumilli forest in Alluri Sitaramaraju district, a senior police officer in Bastar had confirmed.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had said the killing of Hidma, along with five other Naxalites, in a joint operation by security forces along the Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh border marks a “decisive achievement” in the fight against Left Wing Extremism.
Over the decades, Hidma orchestrated numerous brutal attacks, including the 2013 Jhiram Valley attack, targeted killings, and large-scale ambushes, posing a persistent threat to peace and stability across the Dandakaranya region, Sai had added.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Veena Nair | 
