In a major jolt to the Maoist movement in Andhra Pradesh, the police killed a central committee member and his wife in the deep forests of Visakhapatnam [Images] district late on Wednesday night.

A state police spokesman told rediff.com that the slain couple have been identified as central committee member Chandramouli alias Devanna and his wife Devi alias Devakka.

Chandramouli, a native of Karimnagar district, carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head. Associated with the left-wing extremist movement for over two decades, he was currently overall in charge of Maoist operations in Andhra-Orissa border areas. 

The police spokesman said that a special police party was combing the forest area near Panasapally village in G K Veedhi mandal when armed Maoists fired at them around 7.45 pm.

The police returned fire and the exchange lasted for about half-an-hour before the Maoists fled the scene. The police recovered a self-loading rifle, two shotguns, a claymore mine and two kitbags from the place.

Realising that a top Maoist was on the run as an SLR was found, the police rushed additional forces from nearby areas and another exchange of fire followed three hours later. When the pitched gun-battle ended, the police found the bodies of the slain couple.

The police spokesman said that a red alert has been sounded and additional forces deployed in the tribal belt of the three north coastal districts, following the killing of Devanna and Devakka. Combing has been intensified along the sensitive Andhra-Orissa border. Police forces have been put on a high alert in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts to prevent any untoward incident.  
 
District superintendent of police J G Murali said that the police has been conducting combing operations in the Chintapalli, G K Veedhi and Koyyuru mandals for the last 10 days and the top Maoist couple were killed in a chance encounter.

Meanwhile, civil liberties activists in Hyderabad, including revolutionary balladeer Gadar, alleged that Devanna that the Maoist couple were killed in a cold-blooded 'fake' encounter by the police.

The civil rights groups moved a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking a direction for conduct of post-mortem on the bodies of the Maoist couple at King George Hospital at Visakhapatnam, rather than the government hospital at Chintapalli.