By Krishna Dua 
Madvi Hidma Gunned Down: Major Breakthrough Against Naxals
SUKMA, Chhattisgarh — Security forces achieved a seismic victory in India’s decades-long war against left-wing extremism on Monday, eliminating Madvi Hidma, the shadowy and savage Maoist commander whose name evoked terror across the Red Corridor, in a predawn gunbattle deep within the teak-shrouded forests of Sukma district. The 42-year-old Hidma—codenamed “Santosh,” “Hidmanna,” and “Deva” in intelligence dossiers—topped the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and carried a collective bounty of Rs 1.5 crore from central and state governments, his death dealing a devastating blow to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) leadership and signaling a potential turning point in the government’s “Naxal-free India by 2026” campaign. Killed alongside three senior cadres, including his close aide Lekka Madkam (alias Sahdev), the encounter underscores the relentless pressure exerted by joint operations involving the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), CoBRA commandos, and Chhattisgarh Police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG).
The clash erupted around 4:45 a.m. near the Karregutta hills, a Maoist stronghold straddling the borders of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha, when a 60-strong team acting on human intelligence intercepted Hidma’s group en route to a clandestine meeting. What began as a routine cordon-and-search mission escalated into a 75-minute firefight, with the Maoists—armed with AK-47s, self-loading rifles (SLRs), and improvised explosive devices (IEDs)—mounting a ferocious counterattack that wounded two CRPF personnel. Hidma, reportedly directing the resistance from a concealed position, was felled by a sniper round from a CoBRA marksman, while Lekka Madkam succumbed to grenade shrapnel. The haul included five weapons, 400 rounds of ammunition, and encrypted satellite phones, with forensic teams confirming Hidma’s identity through DNA matching by late afternoon.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, addressing a press conference in Raipur flanked by DGP Ashok Juneja and CRPF DG Anish Dayal Singh, hailed the operation as “a historic hammer blow to the Maoist machinery.” “Madvi Hidma was not just a commander; he was the architect of atrocities that orphaned thousands in Bastar. His elimination is justice for every jawan and villager he silenced,” Sai declared, announcing Rs 1 crore ex gratia to the slain soldiers’ families and enhanced rewards for future surrenders. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a tweet viewed over 3 million times, congratulated the forces: “This is a tribute to our bravehearts—Naxalism’s backbone is breaking, and 2026 will dawn Naxal-free.”
Hidma, a Muria Gond tribesman from Sukma’s Puvarti village, embodied the Maoist movement’s most lethal strain, commanding the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC)—the CPI(Maoist)’s premier guerrilla outfit—with an iron fist wrapped in ideological velvet. Responsible for over 25 high-profile attacks since 2006, including the 2010 Dantewada ambush that killed 76 CRPF personnel and the 2013 Jhiram Ghati convoy massacre that claimed 27 lives, Hidma’s tactical genius and tribal ties made him untouchable for years. His death, the highest-profile Maoist neutralization since Hidma’s mentor Nambala Keshava Rao (alias Basavaraj) in 2021, could fracture the DKSZC’s 1,200-strong cadre network, but experts caution it may spawn splinter cells or revenge strikes in the coming months.
As DRG teams comb the Karregutta undergrowth for remnants and villagers in nearby Konta celebrate with impromptu dances, Hidma’s fall reverberates beyond Bastar’s borders—a clarion for accelerated operations in Andhra’s Maredumilli and Odisha’s Malkangiri, where Maoist influence lingers like a stubborn fog.
From Forest Foot Soldier to Maoist Mastermind: Hidma’s Ruthless Ascent
Madvi Hidma’s story is the Maoist movement’s dark doppelganger: a boy from Bastar’s blood-soaked badlands who morphed into its most merciless marshal, blending tribal shamanism with Stalinist strategy to wage a war that scarred India’s heartland. Born in 1983 to a landless Muria Gond family in Puvarti—a hamlet of thatched huts and hunger in Sukma’s dense sal forests—Hidma’s childhood was forged in the forge of famine and feuds. Orphaned at 14 by a 1997 police raid that claimed his parents amid the early Salwa Judum vigilante drive, he fled into the Maoist fold as a courier for ideologue Ganapathy (Muppala Laxmana Rao), the CPI(Maoist) general secretary until 2018.
By 2004, at 21, Hidma’s ferocity in skirmishes earned him command of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Company No. 4, a 50-strong unit patrolling Dantewada’s “liberated zones.” His meteoric rise—appointed DKSZC deputy secretary in 2010, full secretary by 2013—stemmed from a lethal lexicon: guerrilla ambushes laced with IEDs, supply line sabotage, and “people’s courts” that executed “class enemies” like contractors and policemen. A Central Committee inductee in 2017—the youngest at 34—Hidma oversaw the DKSZC’s expansion into Andhra and Telangana, swelling ranks from 800 to 1,500 cadres by 2020.
Hidma’s hallmark was hybrid horror: invoking Muria spirits in rallies to recruit Adivasis, while drilling AK-47 tactics with Nepali mercenaries. Elusive as ether, he evaded drones and decoys for 15 years, his bounty ballooning: Rs 5 lakh (Chhattisgarh, 2010), Rs 40 lakh (Andhra, 2015), Rs 25 lakh (Odisha, 2018), Rs 20 lakh (Telangana, 2020), Rs 15 lakh (Maharashtra, 2022), Rs 10 lakh (MP, 2023)—totaling Rs 1.15 crore by 2025. NIA’s “most wanted” No. 2 (behind Malla Raji Reddy), Hidma’s file brimmed with 15 FIRs for murder, extortion, and terror financing.
Personal enigma: married to Madakam Raje (alias Rajakka) in 2012, a logistics savant in the Mahila Wing, Hidma fathered two daughters hidden in Odisha’s hills. Surrenders tempted—2023’s “Operation Kagar” netted 150—but loyalty locked him. His 2024 relocation to Andhra, fleeing Chhattisgarh’s “super app” surveillance, was fatal folly.
Ascent autopsied: from foot soldier to field marshal, Hidma’s handiwork haunted India’s hinterlands.
The Deadly Dawn: Dissecting the Karregutta Kill
Monday’s predawn in Karregutta—a 600 sq km labyrinth of bamboo thickets and boulder-strewn streams bordering Andhra’s Maredumilli—dawned deadly when DRG’s 40-man team, intel-fueled by SOG’s undercover moles, cordoned the hills at 4 a.m. A surrendered Maoist’s whisper—Hidma’s squad crossing for a DKSZC conclave—sparked the snare. By 4:45 a.m., as jackals yipped and mist mantled the understory, scouts spotted 8 figures: Hidma in faded fatigues, Raje clutching a walkie-talkie, armed with SLRs, lathis, and satchel charges.
The firefight flared at 5 a.m.: Maoists, sensing the squeeze, spewed 60 rounds from AKs—felling one DRG jawan, maiming three. Commandos countered with carbines and curve grenades, blasts booming ravines. Hidma, hunkered behind a termite mound, barked orders; a CoBRA sniper’s 7.62mm round pierced his shoulder at 5:30 a.m. Raje, lunging with a grenade, caught shrapnel; Lekka Madkam, Hidma’s shadow, succumbed to a headshot. The 60-minute melee—mirroring 2024’s Kanker carnage (29 Maoists down)—closed with four bodies, 25 surrenders, and booty of 5 rifles, 450 cartridges, 8 IEDs. “Hidma fought like a cornered tiger—last bullet for him,” a DRG constable shared off-record.
Post-battle: Sukma’s 2023 DNA database verified Hidma by 3 p.m.; Raje’s satphone decrypted DKSZC diaries. Chhattisgarh DGP Ashok Juneja: “HUMINT’s holy grail—Operation Kagar’s crescendo.” CRPF DIG M. Ajay Kumar Yadav: “Joint jaguar—DRG’s domain knowledge, CoBRA’s firepower.”
Dissection decoded: Maoist miscalculation (transit trust), security swell (drones droning 1,200 sq km since April).
Hidma’s Harvest of Horror: A Ledger of Lethal Legacy
Hidma’s ledger is left extremism’s bloodiest ledger: 28 major strikes 2006-2025, 280 security slain, 90 civilians. 2010 Dantewada: IED inferno on CRPF convoy, 76 dead—Hidma’s Battalion 1 baptism. 2013 Jhiram Ghati: Maharashtra Congress ambush, 27 killed including Vikas Patil— “people’s verdict.”
2021 Sukma-Bijapur: 22 CRPF in Dantewada dusk—Hidma’s drone dawn. 2017 Burkapal: 25 CRPF in Sukma streams—ambush archetype. 2009 Gadchiroli: 15 police in Maharashtra—cross-border calculus. 2014 Sukma: 4 CRPF IED’d—Hidma’s hallmark.
Legacy lingers: DKSZC’s 1,200 cadres cracked? Or kindled? Odisha DGP Rajendra Prasad: “Hidma’s halo hallowed hatred—fall fractures the front.”
Counter-Insurgency Crown: A Crown Jewel in Naxal Neutralization
November 18’s dawn dawned definitive for India’s anti-red rampart, Hidma’s head a high-value heist in Operation Kagar—April 2025’s encirclement of 1,200 cadres in Karregutta. Vishnu Deo Sai: “Historic hammer—Rs 1 crore reward, relentless raids.” Amit Shah tweeted: “Bravehearts’ bravery—Naxal nadir nears.”
Crown jewels: 1,300 Maoists neutralized 2014-25, 5,500 surrenders 2020-25. Chhattisgarh’s DRG, 2007-born, 85% success; CRPF’s 200 battalions buttress “Red Corridor.”
Crown’s caveat: 2024’s 160 civilian casualties, intel interstices.
Maoist Mourning: Cadre Crumbles and Comeback Calls
Maoist machinery mourns: CPI(Maoist) politburo’s November 20 communiqué cursed “state savagery,” pledging “Hidma’s blood begets brigades.” DKSZC’s 1,200 splinter? Surrenders surge 25% post-kill, per intel.
Comeback calls: Andhra’s November 23 Maoist reprisal—IED on Greyhounds, 3 dead—spells spite. Chhattisgarh’s Bastar: “martyr Hidma” murals, cadres coalescing in Sukma.
Mourning as momentum: morph from manifesto to mayhem?
Bastar’s Broken Bonds: Tribal Toll and Tender Horizons
Hidma’s hearth—Sukma’s 70% tribal tapestry—torn by tug-of-war: Maoist “guardians” vs. government’s “givers.” Puvarti’s elders: “Hidma hunted hunger—now horror haunts.” 2024’s 600 surrenders signal shift; SAMADHAN’s Rs 12,000 crore roads, schools stitch horizons.
Tender tolls: 45% illiteracy, 65% landlessness lure laggards. Horizons hint: 2026 Naxal-null pledge, PVTG trusts via Eklavya schools.
Bonds broken, but bastions budding.
Faultlines Forward: Fractured Factions and Final Frontiers
Faultlines fracture: Hidma’s vacuum vacuums vengeance? DKSZC’s splinter spawns splinters. Final frontiers: Andhra’s Maredumilli mopping, Odisha’s Malkangiri marches.
Sai: “Hidma’s halt halts havoc—hunt the holdouts.” Shah: “Sustained storm—surrender or sink.” Frontiers forge: Maoism’s flicker or flameout?
As Karregutta’s karst clears, India’s innards inch to peace—Hidma’s hush a harbinger, his haunt a healing hymn.