Vikram Gowda, Karnataka’s most wanted Naxal leader who had been on the police radar for decades, was tracked through local informants and ambushed during an operation targeting the house he was expected to visit in a village in his home taluk in the state’s Udupi district, The Indian Express has learnt.
Sources said the “encounter” in which Vikram Gowda, 44, was killed came after the police gathered information and intelligence in Kerala and Karnataka for over three months about the movements and activities of the group of the last eight armed Naxals operating in Karnataka under the leadership of Gowda.
They said some of the information came from Naxals from Karnataka, who were arrested in 2021 by the Kerala Police and are housed in jails in that state. The key information was about the identities of those whom the Naxals could seek support from while hiding in the forests in Karnataka.
However, the police have stated in the First Information Report (FIR) registered in the case on November 19 that ANF personnel chanced upon the Naxal leader and a few of his associates during combing operations in the forest on the evening of November 18. The police said in the FIR that they called out to the Naxals saying they must surrender. However, the FIR stated, that the Naxal leader refused to surrender and instead opened fire and the police retaliated as a consequence Vikram Gowda was killed and a 9 mm carbine gun was recovered from his possession.
Keeping a watch
While Vikram Gowda was likely to seek help from remote houses in the Hebri region of Udupi where he hailed from, his associate Sundari, who is at large, was expected to tap old acquaintances in the forests near Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada.
“All the persons who were identified as being likely to be approached by Naxals, confirmed to have re-entered Karnataka and roaming the forests near Dakshina Kannada and Udupi since August, were under the watch of the police,” said a source.
One of the persons in the Pithubail, Nadpalu village reportedly agreed to help the police capture Vikram Gowda after the force learned that he had visited his house around November 10 seeking help. “Vikram Gowda had paid the informant for provisions and was scheduled to arrive on November 18 to collect them,” the source said.
On November 18, when the Naxal leader was scheduled to visit the house, the police asked the family of the informant and two neighbours to move to the homes of relatives.
Vikram Gowda reportedly approached the house alone on the evening of November 18 to collect supplies as he had planned earlier, and around three of his associates, including Sundari, waited some distance away. When he approached the house, ANF personnel who were waiting in hiding opened fire fearing that Gowda would use his gun too, sources said. “We gave a warning to surrender but he did not listen and there was a skirmish and firing,” a senior police official said about the shooting.
No injuries have been reported to the ANF team led by Jitendra Dayam, Superintendent of Police, in the encounter.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the encounter was carried out to curb Naxal activities in the state. “He was asked to surrender, but he did not. He had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh by the Kerala government and Rs 5 lakh by the state government,” he said.
Home minister G Parameshwara said that Gowda had more than 60 cases, including murder, cases against him. “He had an automatic machine gun. Efforts were made for his surrender in the past with the help of his relatives. However, he had not agreed,” he said.
A hardline Naxal
Vikram Gowda was among the eight remaining underground Naxals from Karnataka, and among the seven remaining leaders, four are women. The group is suspected to have split into two to prevent detection with Sundari, Vanajakshi, and Ramesh from Tamil Nadu moving with Vikram Gowda. The second group led by Mundgaru Latha and comprising Jisha from Kerala, Jayanna, and Ravi, is reportedly in another location.
Seen as the last standing major Naxal leader from Karnataka following the arrest of B G Krishnamurthy, alias Gangadhar, 50, by the Kerala Police in 2021, there were around 61 cases registered against Vikram Gowda in Karnataka ranging from issuance of threats to assaults and murder. Vikram Gowda was considered one of the more hardline Naxals in Karnataka and Kerala and was holding out against surrendering even after many surrendered. He was reportedly part of the Kabini Dalam in the Naxal organisation.
After initially being aligned with Naxal activities as a courier and fund collector in the forests around his home in the Western Ghats, Gowda went underground in 2002. Sources said Gowda, who studied until Class 4, was involved in tribal rights activism.
Gowda moved to neighbouring Kerala in around 2014 and was a senior leader involved in Naxal activities in the state. Several of the movement’s top leaders in Kerala and Karnataka like Mohideen surrendered in 2021 along with B G Krishnamurthy and Vikram Gowda’s former wife Savitri.
Naxal activities in Karnataka are largely confined to the forests of the Western Ghat districts in the state — Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikamagalur, Kodagu, and Hassan — and have been almost negligible since 2018 when the group was reduced to a mere 19 and reportedly moved to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties Wednesday called the shooting of Vikram Gowda a “murder”, and sought the filing of an FIR against police officer involved in the encounter. “The PUCL condemns the murder of Naxalite leader Vikram Gowda which is sought to be explained away by the police as an ‘encounter’. The killing on November 19, 2024, is nothing other than a violation of the guarantee of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution under the guise of an ‘encounter,” a PUCL statement said.
The PUCL demanded the “registration of an FIR for culpable homicide against the police officers involved in the so-called encounter immediately”.
On Wednesday, rehabilitated Naxals Noor Sridhar and Sirimane Nagaraj sought a judicial probe into the killing of Vikram Gowda by the Karnataka ANF. Sridhar urged the Karnataka Government to get the encounter investigated by a retired judge, and said the culture of encounters should not continue.
Tapping informants, laying a trap: How Karnataka’s most wanted Naxal leader Vikram Gowda was killed
Vikram Gowda, Karnataka’s most wanted Naxal leader who had been on the police radar for decades, was tracked through local informants and ambushed during an operation targeting the house he was expected to visit in a village in his home taluk in the state’s Udupi district, The Indian Express has learnt.
Vikram Gowda, 44, was killed in the encounter with the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) in Pithubail, Nadpalu under the Hebri taluk late Monday after he walked into a trap laid by the Karnataka Police following information that he had paid a family in the village to supply provisions to his group, according to sources.
Sources said the “encounter” in which Vikram Gowda, 44, was killed came after the police gathered information and intelligence in Kerala and Karnataka for over three months about the movements and activities of the group of the last eight armed Naxals operating in Karnataka under the leadership of Gowda.
They said some of the information came from Naxals from Karnataka, who were arrested in 2021 by the Kerala Police and are housed in jails in that state. The key information was about the identities of those whom the Naxals could seek support from while hiding in the forests in Karnataka.
However, the police have stated in the First Information Report (FIR) registered in the case on November 19 that ANF personnel chanced upon the Naxal leader and a few of his associates during combing operations in the forest on the evening of November 18. The police said in the FIR that they called out to the Naxals saying they must surrender. However, the FIR stated, that the Naxal leader refused to surrender and instead opened fire and the police retaliated as a consequence Vikram Gowda was killed and a 9 mm carbine gun was recovered from his possession.
Keeping a watch
While Vikram Gowda was likely to seek help from remote houses in the Hebri region of Udupi where he hailed from, his associate Sundari, who is at large, was expected to tap old acquaintances in the forests near Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada.
“All the persons who were identified as being likely to be approached by Naxals, confirmed to have re-entered Karnataka and roaming the forests near Dakshina Kannada and Udupi since August, were under the watch of the police,” said a source.
One of the persons in the Pithubail, Nadpalu village reportedly agreed to help the police capture Vikram Gowda after the force learned that he had visited his house around November 10 seeking help. “Vikram Gowda had paid the informant for provisions and was scheduled to arrive on November 18 to collect them,” the source said.
On November 18, when the Naxal leader was scheduled to visit the house, the police asked the family of the informant and two neighbours to move to the homes of relatives.
Vikram Gowda reportedly approached the house alone on the evening of November 18 to collect supplies as he had planned earlier, and around three of his associates, including Sundari, waited some distance away. When he approached the house, ANF personnel who were waiting in hiding opened fire fearing that Gowda would use his gun too, sources said. “We gave a warning to surrender but he did not listen and there was a skirmish and firing,” a senior police official said about the shooting.
No injuries have been reported to the ANF team led by Jitendra Dayam, Superintendent of Police, in the encounter.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the encounter was carried out to curb Naxal activities in the state. “He was asked to surrender, but he did not. He had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh by the Kerala government and Rs 5 lakh by the state government,” he said.
Home minister G Parameshwara said that Gowda had more than 60 cases, including murder, cases against him. “He had an automatic machine gun. Efforts were made for his surrender in the past with the help of his relatives. However, he had not agreed,” he said.
A hardline Naxal
Vikram Gowda was among the eight remaining underground Naxals from Karnataka, and among the seven remaining leaders, four are women. The group is suspected to have split into two to prevent detection with Sundari, Vanajakshi, and Ramesh from Tamil Nadu moving with Vikram Gowda. The second group led by Mundgaru Latha and comprising Jisha from Kerala, Jayanna, and Ravi, is reportedly in another location.
Seen as the last standing major Naxal leader from Karnataka following the arrest of B G Krishnamurthy, alias Gangadhar, 50, by the Kerala Police in 2021, there were around 61 cases registered against Vikram Gowda in Karnataka ranging from issuance of threats to assaults and murder. Vikram Gowda was considered one of the more hardline Naxals in Karnataka and Kerala and was holding out against surrendering even after many surrendered. He was reportedly part of the Kabini Dalam in the Naxal organisation.
After initially being aligned with Naxal activities as a courier and fund collector in the forests around his home in the Western Ghats, Gowda went underground in 2002. Sources said Gowda, who studied until Class 4, was involved in tribal rights activism.
Gowda moved to neighbouring Kerala in around 2014 and was a senior leader involved in Naxal activities in the state. Several of the movement’s top leaders in Kerala and Karnataka like Mohideen surrendered in 2021 along with B G Krishnamurthy and Vikram Gowda’s former wife Savitri.
Naxal activities in Karnataka are largely confined to the forests of the Western Ghat districts in the state — Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikamagalur, Kodagu, and Hassan — and have been almost negligible since 2018 when the group was reduced to a mere 19 and reportedly moved to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties Wednesday called the shooting of Vikram Gowda a “murder”, and sought the filing of an FIR against police officer involved in the encounter. “The PUCL condemns the murder of Naxalite leader Vikram Gowda which is sought to be explained away by the police as an ‘encounter’. The killing on November 19, 2024, is nothing other than a violation of the guarantee of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution under the guise of an ‘encounter,” a PUCL statement said.
The PUCL demanded the “registration of an FIR for culpable homicide against the police officers involved in the so-called encounter immediately”.
On Wednesday, rehabilitated Naxals Noor Sridhar and Sirimane Nagaraj sought a judicial probe into the killing of Vikram Gowda by the Karnataka ANF. Sridhar urged the Karnataka Government to get the encounter investigated by a retired judge, and said the culture of encounters should not continue.
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