Visakhapatnam, June 18 : Three top leaders of CPI(Maoist) were killed in an exchange of fire with police in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitarama Raju district on Wednesday.

The exchange of fire between the personnel of the elite anti-Maoist force Greyhounds and Maoists occurred in the Devipatnam forest area on the Andhra-Odisha border.

The Greyhounds personnel, engaged in a combing operation in the forests, spotted the Maoists and asked them to surrender. When the Maoists opened fire, the security personnel retaliated, killing the three Maoists. The encounter occurred near Kondamodalu in the forests between Rampachodavaram and Maredumilli mandals.

The slain Maoists were identified as Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) Special Zone Committee secretary Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, Special Zone Committee member Aruna, and Special Zone Committee ACM Anju. Ravi was also a member of the CPI(Maoist) Central Committee.

The security forces recovered three AK-47 rifles from the scene of the encounter.

Aruna was the wife of Ramachandra Reddy alias Chalapathi, a Central Committee member who was among 14 Maoists gunned down by security forces in January this year in Chhattisgarh near the border with Odisha.

Aruna was involved in the killing of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma. The Maoists had gunned down the two leaders of the TDP in 2018 in the Visakhapatnam district. Aruna was a native of Karakavanipalem in Pendurthi mandal of Viskhatpatnam district and carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh on her head. Uday carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head.

The bodies of the slain Maoists have been shifted to the Rampachodavaram Area Hospital.

Senior police officials visited the scene of the encounter.

The killing of three Maoist leaders is seen as a major blow to the banned outfit in the AOB region.

The AOB was seen by Maoists as a safe corridor between the Dandakaranya region in Chhattisgarh and the forests of Jharkhand.

The latest blow to the Maoists in AOB came close on the heels of the killing of several Maoists by the security forces in Chhattisgarh under Operation Kagar.

/IANS