MILIND TELTUMBDE, one of 26 Maoists killed on Saturday in clashes with security forces in Maharashtra, Gadchiroli, was a trade union leader in the 1980s and later became a key member of a banned KPI (Maoist) organization to: received the same award.

According to current and retired senior police officers, 50 lakhs were arrested.
In a note to Teltumbde posted on Sunday, police said the 58-year-old man was believed to have been involved in 42 crashes, 7 civilian killings, 4 police killings, 2 arson and 1 hooligan.

For many years Teltumbde was secretary of the Maharashtra Department of the KPI (Maoists), according to police. According to reports, he has been a member of the Central Committee for several years and is responsible for Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

One police officer said he was also diabetic and had knee pain. “While travelling through the hills of Abujhmad (Chhattisgarh) he had to ride a horse because he could not walk in the area. On his knees, he tried several surgeries to no avail. That’s probably why he couldn’t avoid the Saturday meeting,” he said.

The officer said that he worked in many places across western Maharashtra in addition to Nasik. According to the retired police officer, Teltumbde turned to the Maoist movement in the 1980s after an argument with the manager of Western Coalfields Ltd in Chandrapur. He worked there as a technician after he took ITI courses.It was found out afterwards that he had been charged with attempted murder.

His work in an organization known as Union of Ahil Maharashtra Kamgar gave him a great deal of satisfaction. During his time at KPI (Maoism), he steadily climbed the career ladder.

 

In 2011, Teltumbde’s wife, Angela, was arrested in Thanh on charges of Maoist activity. She was later released on bail.

Last year, Teltumbde, along with seven others, including his older brother and former IIT professor Anand Teltumbde, were named defendants in a further indictment filed by the National Investigation Agency in the Elgar Parishad case.

Citing the alleged role of Milind Teltumbde in the Elgar Parishad incident at Bhima-Koregaon near Poona three years ago, another officer described him as “the main supporter of the program”.

Police officials told reporters that the content of communications with the organizers under the name of Deepak is part of the police record.

According to a retired officer, in the 1980s Milind Teltumbde was a member of the then People’s Military Group (PWG), led by Kondapalli Sitaramaya. As a result of major discrepancies, the entire Maharashtra department has been excluded from the Sitaramaya group. Former officer Teltumbde and others formed Maharashtra PWG in 1992, but he later joined them,” the officer recalled.

A police report to Milind Teltumbda listed three “significant incidents”. These include the “Naxalifa-induced” explosion that killed 15 police officers in the village of Jambulheda on May 1, 2019, and the explosion that killed two police officers in a collision in Koparshi on May 17, 2020.

He said: Maharashtra, Madhya He is said to have directed, increased staff, conducted arms training and always paid attention to the activities of the Maoist banned in Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Milind Teltumbde, who was killed in clashes with security forces in Gadchiroli on Saturday, was critical to the movement to exterminate. The reason and his death are the main reasons why it is likely to be “a major blow to the organization,” a police source said. Gadchiroli activists said.

On Saturday, Gadchiroli police killed at least 26 people suspected of being Maoists in 10 hours. Among them were Teltumbde, a member of the Central Committee of the Maoist Party (KPI) and head of the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) district, according to Gadchiroli police.
Maharashtra police have awarded a bounty of $50 million per person, and other states have awarded similar bounties for information about him, SP Ankit Goyal told reporters on Sunday.

According to police, during the operation, Teltumbde’s two personal guards, Manso Suhram Boga and Tilak Mankur Jale, were also killed during the operation, with prizes of 8 lakh and 6 lakh Tilak Mankur Jale respectively.
An IPS representative who has worked with Gadchiloli police over the past several years told ThePrint, on condition of anonymity: work. Responsible for empowerment and training, usually administrative.”

The officer continued: “His influence was strongest in northern Gadchioli, Gondia, and Balaghat, where the Naxals were trying to establish territories. He was succeeded by his son, who was the leader of northern Gadchioli after his death.”It can be said that Naxal’s operation in the city was virtually neutralized.”

An official of Gadchioli, who did not want to be named, said Teltumbde was one of the first and most famous city figures in Mao. Traditionally, Naxal tribes were said to have been born near jungles and to have fought there as children. Those myths were destroyed by the Teltumbde leadership. The movement in urban areas was greatly strengthened by taking a look at the system from the outside,” said the activist.

The the activist added that Teltumbde knew what tribal leaders and community activists were doing and always “listened to the scene”.

Naxal movement supporters such as Teltumbde have played an important role in this movement. The Maoists are probably going through a trying time right now,” speculated the activist.

A man from a poor family of Dalita

Mahara and his sisters are sources who know him. Those who knew him in his youth say that Teltumbde was born in a Dalit Mahar family from Wani Taluka in Rajur village in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, and was the youngest of many brothers and sisters.
He is the younger brother of writer and civil rights activist Anand Teltumbde, now imprisoned in Taloja Jail for his involvement in the Elgar Parishad case. Milind Teltumbde also appears as a defendant in the case.

In spite of her age, his mother was still alive at 90. His father was a day laborer, and his mother worked in a brick mill. Despite the poverty of the family, the children were all given scholarships to go to school,” said a source quoted above.

Milind Teltumbde studied at the Institute of Industrial Training after graduating 10th grade.

He started working in a coal mine in Sasti, Chandrapur region, in the mid-1980s, where he founded his union.

According to the source, he always appeared to be a fighter with flaming eyes and a fire burning inside of him. At that time, it was evident that he was belligerent in his character.”

According to one source, Teltumbde, a native of the small town of Vidarbha, tried to practice his English-speaking skills with everyone he met in the city, but always turned down marriage proposals, stating that marriage proposals were not for him.

He eventually married Angela Sontakka, the daughter of a schoolteacher, in 1994.
Sontakkke was arrested by the Maharashtra Counter-Terrorism Authority in April 2011 on suspicion of linking with Naxal. Her Supreme Court released her on her bail in 2016.

Naxala’s rise to the ranks

By the end of the 1980s, according to Gadchiroli Police, Naxala ideology gradually influenced Milind Teltumbde. Until 1994, he served as chairman of workers’ organizations such as Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Mazdoor Sangathan and the Union of Indian Miners.

After joining the Naxal movement, Teltumbde first worked on the coal belts of Chandrapur, Vani, Umreda and Nagpur and became a member of the Maharashtra National Committee for the Communists from 2004 to 2006, according to a police statement released Sunday. …

Police added that Teltumbde became the commission’s secretary after Sridhar Srinivasan was arrested. Srinivasan was a member of the Central Committee of the KPI (Maoists), who died of a heart attack in 2015.

In 2012 213 Teltumbde headed the Gadchiroli division of Gondia Balaghat and in 2016 when the Maoists dissolved the state. After the creation of the committee and the MMC, Teltumbde was appointed director.

An official statement from the police said that “the MMC zone was created to bolster and revitalize the killing organization.”

Among Teltumbde’s activities are monitoring and analyzing the movements of security forces in Gadchiroli, Gondia, Balaghat, and Rajnandgaon, and organizing and implementing major ambushes and other subversion activities. His contribution to strengthening the organization of the Naxals in urban areas was mentioned in the statement.

Teltumbde has several pseudonyms such as Jiva, Deepak, Praveen, Sudhir, Arun and Sahyadri, and was named for 63 felonies in the Gadchiroli district, according to police. These included 42 crashes, 7 civilians, 4 police, 2 arson and 1 crime.

edited and proofread by: nikita sharma