Hidma encounter fake, orchestrated by Maoist leader Devji: Former Bastar MLA

Manish Kunjam, a tribal leader from Bastar and its former MLA, on Friday (November 21, 2025) said the encounter in which top Maoist commander Madvi Hidma was killed in Andhra Pradesh on November 18 was “staged” and “orchestrated” by senior Maoist leader Devji from Telangana. Hidma was from Chhattisgarh’s Sukma.

After a wave of surrenders in the past one month, including high-profile senior members of the banned CPI (Maoist), in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, Hidma and Devji were considered the remaining top leaders still planning to continue the armed struggle.

Hidma, his wife Madkam Raje, and four other Maoists were killed in an encounter with security personnel in the Maredumilli forest in Alluri Sitaramaraju district of Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to journalists in Sukma district, Mr. Kunjam said that Devji was behind the “fake encounter” and had used this as an “advantage to build his own image and gain political mileage”. The former MLA now runs Bastariya Raj Morcha.

“Two days after the death of Hidma, 50 people (Maoists) were arrested in Andhra Pradesh. Will 50 people go there to get arrested? Most of them are local boys and are from Sukma and Bijapur (south Bastar). The entire game was planned by Devji who is a big leader of Naxalites,” said Mr. Kunjam, adding that Devji took all of them to Andhra Pradesh on the pretext of getting them surrendered.

While the police have maintained that Hidma was involved in the killing of over 260 security personnel and 81 civilians, Mr. Kunjam questioned the claims about his specific role, adding that the blame for all those attacks by Maoists was now being pinned on Hidma, and not Devji.

“Look at all the newspapers, Hidma has been made the mastermind of all major incidents. What about well-educated people who came from Andhra Pradesh (and were active as Maoists). Were they just idling? They put all the blame on Hidma. They got him killed and arrested the rest,” he said. “Devji is neither arrested, nor killed.”

Mr. Kunjam blamed Maoist leaders from Andhra Pradesh for “arming and instigating” Bastar’s tribal youth to join the insurgency.