Top Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, who carried a bounty of Rs. 1 crore, was killed in an encounter in the Maredumilli forest area of Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district yesterday.
Security units, including the elite Greyhounds, launched the operation early Tuesday, leading to a fierce exchange of fire in which Hidma and several of his close aides were gunned down.
Believed to be around 43 years old, Hidma hailed from Purvati village in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh and was widely considered the most feared Maoist strategist in central India.
As commander of the PLGA Battalion No. 1, he was linked to major attacks including the 2010 Dantewada ambush that killed 76 CRPF personnel and the 2021 Sukma-Bijapur clash that left 22 personnel dead.
Officials described his killing as a serious blow to Maoist networks, weakening their operational command across the Bastar–Andhra frontier.
