A joint team of the Telangana and Chattisgarh Police on Friday said they had killed 12 suspected Maoists in Dantewada district’s Pukari Kanker region, including senior Maoist leader Hari Bushan, The Hindu reported.

Sushil Kumar, a junior commando of anti-Maoist force, the Greyhounds, was also killed in the encounter, while two others were injured, according to The Indian Express. Kumar was part of the lead team, the report said. He died on the way to a hospital.

Security forces had launched the counter-insurgency operation in the forest on the inter-state border after receiving inputs about the presence of a group of Maoists, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Mohit Garg told PTI.

The police said they recovered two AK 47s and eight other weapons from the scene, according to The Hindu. The bodies of the Maoists were taken to the government hospital at Bhadarachalam in the Kothagudem district for an autopsy.

A member of the Revolutionary Writers’ Association has claimed that the gun fight was fake, PTI reported. Varavara Rao said he had moved a lunch motion petition – filed in case of an emergence seeking to hear the case on the very same day – asking the Hyderabad High Court to direct the police to follow Supreme Court guidelines related to encounters.