In , which had been a stronghold of the Maoists for several years before intensified security operations led to the killing and surrender of hundreds of cadres over the last two years, security forces have in recent days recovered a total of Rs 1 crore in cash and a large cache of weapons that had been hidden in the jungle by the rebels.
Many of these operations have been taking place in Abujhmad, a large unsurveyed area in the Bastar region, which was once known as the headquarters of Maoist leadership. More than 100 Maoists were gunned down in Abujhmad since 2024, including the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju. Following this hundreds of Maoist cadres from the area have surrendered.
As part of operations to recover hidden Maoist weapons, four jawans had found explosive material that suddenly blew up while they were trying defuse them, leading to the deaths of the jawans in the Chottebethiya in Kanker district, from where Abujhmad begins.
On Saturday, during one such operation in Nelangur village near Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border, forces found Rs 84 lakh in cash concealed in a bag buried in the ground along with a couple of AK47 rifles buried nearby. “In another operation in north Bastar, we found Rs 14 lakh cash. In all, we found Rs 1 crore cash. The operations were undertaken based on information provided by some surrendered Naxals,” said Narayanpur district Superintendent of Police Robinson Guria.
“There is a possibility of more weapons, explosives, and daily-use materials hidden in the forests of Abujhmad by slain Maoists being recovered. A total of 270 weapons has been recovered in the district during the year 2025–26,” said Guria.
Over the past month, Narayanpur police in a joint operation with the District Reserve Guard (DRG), the Special Task Force (STF), the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Border Security Force (BSF) carried out intensive search and area domination operations in remote and sensitive regions.
Apart from the cash, forces recovered three AK-47 rifles, three SLR rifles, two .303 rifles, one .315 rifle, two 12-bore guns, two country-made pistols and one air gun, along with five AK-47 magazines, 13 SLR magazines, one INSAS rifle magazine, two .303 rifle magazines, one .315 rifle magazine, 113 live AK-47 cartridges, 182 live SLR cartridges, 45 live .303 cartridges, 41 live .315 cartridges, 19 live 12-bore cartridges and 12 SMG cartridges.
The seizures also included 132 BGL shells, two BGL launchers, 14 BGL cartridges, eight electronic detonators, six bundles of cordex wire, around 5 kg of Sora explosive material, 3 kg of white powder, four sets of radio cells, two bundles of electric wire, six walkie-talkies, and other daily-use materials.
