The Andhra Pradesh police on Friday claimed to have killed a top Maoist gun-maker in an encounter.

The killing comes as a crushing blow to the Communist Party of India-Maoist's operations in Andhra's north coastal region.

The slain Maoist has been identified as 49-year-old Bandareddy Subba Rao alias Gautam, a central technical committee member and who was in-charge of the technical unit of the Andhra Orissa Border special zonal committee.

Soon after Subba Rao's death, the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee alleged that the police had arrested Subba Rao and his wife Jaya at Vijayawada on Thursday night.

In a statement, the APCLC claimed that the police killed Subba Rao in cold blood.

Subba Rao specialised in the manufacture of firearms and carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

After a 30-minute operation in the forests between Bandigedda and Singavaram in East Godavari district, the police said they found the body of a middle-aged man clad in plainclothes.

The police identified the slain Maoist as Subba Rao in the evening.  

The killing is being viewed as a serious setback to the Naxalites' six-member Central Technical Committee.

The technical unit functioning in Dandakaranya is capable of producing 12'' bore guns in large numbers.

A native of Narepalem in Krishna district, Subba Rao was attracted to the Naxalite movement in 1978 when he got acquainted with Maoist leader Ankam Babu Rao.

He went underground in 1981 and worked in Maharashtra till 1995. He manufactured 80 tapanchas and 25'' bore guns. 

Between 1996 and 2001, he worked as the head of the technical unit of North Telangana special zonal committee.

Subba Rao headed a 10-member technical team of Dandakaranya special zonal committee that assembled or manufactured weapons during 2001. In 2002, he was promoted as a member of the Andhra-Orissa border special zonal committee. He was made a member of the central technical committee in 2003. He was involved in an attack on a police combing party at Kalimela in Orissa in 2003 and attacks on Koyyur and Sileru police stations during 2005.

In 1985, Subba Rao married another armed squad member Sarala alias Jaya.

Jaya was made a district committee member and sent to the Andhra Orissa border.

The East Godavari police reportedly arrested her on Friday, soon after the killing Rao.