Top naxal commander among six Maoists killed in Andhra Pradesh encounter
Maredumilli/Raipur (PTI): Top naxal commander Madvi Hidma and his wife were among the six Maoists killed in an encounter with security personnel in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitaramaraju district on Tuesday, police said.
The death of Hidma, an alleged mastermind of several attacks, was described by Chhattisgarh police as the "last nail in the coffin" of insurgency.
Alluri Sitaramaraju district superintendent of police (SP) Amit Bardar said the encounter happened between 6.30 am and 7 am in the forested area of Maredumilli mandal.
"Today morning, between 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM, an exchange of fire (EOF) occurred between Maoists and the police party in the Maredumilli Mandal area. During the encounter, six Maoists were neutralised," an official press release said.
Two women and four men were killed in the exchange of fire.
Based on reliable sources and field verification, police confirmed that Hidma, his wife Madakam Raje, Deve, Lakmal (Chaitu), Malla (Mallalu) and Kamlu (Kamlesh) died.
Intelligence inputs over the past few weeks had indicated increased Maoist movement along the Andhra Pradesh–Chhattisgarh–Odisha border, leading to intensified combing operations, police said.
Following the encounter, police seized two AK 47 rifles, one pistol, one revolver and a single bore weapon, a number of electrical and non-electrical detonators, fuse wire, seven kit bags and others.
"Combing operations are continuing in the surrounding areas to ensure complete sanitisation and prevent further Maoist activity," the press release added.
According to the SP, it was a joint operation carried out by various wings of the police department.
Addressing a press conference, Andhra Pradesh Intelligence ADGP Mahesh Chandra Ladda said Maoists from a few battalions were planning to shift to Andhra Pradesh due to continuous pressure in Chhattisgarh.
Consequently, police kept a close and continuous watch on their movements.
"For the last two days, we had very specific intelligence that a few top Maoist leaders were entering the state and were planning to revive the movement," Ladda said, adding that the bodies of the six Maoists were shifted for postmortem, and that the necessary action will be taken thereafter.
Further, police' monitoring in other districts such as NTR, Krishna, Kakinada and Eluru led to the arrest of 31 more members of the proscribed organisation.
Out of the 31 arrested, nine were security guards of central committee member Devji, while the remaining were from the battalion, Ladda said.
It has also been reported that a few Maoists managed to flee from the encounter site, and combing operations are currently under way, the official added.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Police described Hidma's death as the "last nail in the coffin" of the insurgency. He had masterminded several attacks over the last two decades.
A native of Puvarti village in Sukma district in Chhattisgarh, Hidma's age and appearance remained mysterious until his photograph surfaced earlier this year.
He headed the Maoists' People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Battalion No.1, the strongest military formation of the outfit in Dandakaranya, which spans parts of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, and Maharashtra, apart from Bastar, for several years, officials said.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
