Manchikkandi Maoist encounter: Gun seized were those smuggled from Odisha

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime branch has removed the investigation officer who has been probing Manchikandi Maoist encounter case. DySP V A Ullas has been given charge of investigating the case after removing DySP Feroz from that post. The Crime Branch clarified that the replacement was done to make the probe more transparent. Moreover, DySP Feroz is the witness of the second encounter with Maoists and asking the witness himself to probe the case would be inappropriate.

There is also a Supreme Court order in this regard.

By the way, the Crime branch had recovered Maoists diary scribblings from Manchikandi the other day. The note described the way an attack has to be carried out according to the topography.

The police are examining the scribblings in the diary, which also includes pictorial drawings.

The guns seized from the Maoists were found to be those smuggled into Kerala from Odisha. The police had the other day released the video of Maoist leader Deepak giving training to those who were killed in the encounter in Machikandi encounter. The visuals were found in the pen-drive recovered from Attapady Manchikandi forest area where the encounter took place.