NEW DELHI: Hemchandra Pandey, a
freelance journalist, was also killed in the encounter in which top Maoist
leader and spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was killed in Andhra
Pradesh on Friday.
While admitting that Pandey too was killed in
Friday's encounter, the Adilabad police described him as a Maoist.
Hemchandra Pandey was working as a journalist for the Hindi
newspaper Nayi Duniya in Chhattisgarh.
Friday's shootout took place
near Jogapur in Adilabad district, about 300 km from Hyderabad.
Azad,
who carried a reward of Rs 12 lakh on his head, was a member of the central
committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). Hailing
from Krishna district, he was associated with the Maoist movement for four
decades.
Following the killing of Azad, security agencies have
sounded a high alert in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhatttisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,
Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Azad was gunned down by police two days
after Maoists killed 27 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in
Chhattisgarh.
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