- Top Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishanji, is believed to have been killed in a joint operation by the CRPF and West Bengal police in West Midnapore.
- Kishanji, who was from Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh but was looking after the CPI (Maoist) operations in the Eastern region, is believed to be number three in the outfit's hierarchy after general secretary Ganapathy alias Mupalla Laxman Rao and Kishenda alias Prashant Bose. He was one of the eight members on the CPI (Maoist) polit bureau and also part of its 23-member central committee
- Kishanji was killed in a gunbattle deep inside the dense Burishole forest of West Midnapore. The gunbattle that waged for a few hours between a fairly big gang of Maoists and some 200 plus personnel of the 207 Cobra battalion and 184 CRPF, left a dead body among others, which had an AK-47 beside it and a hearing aid. Kishanji was known to carry both.
