The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two Naxals, including a woman, in connection with the 2019 Tiriya encounter case of Chhattisgarh which claimed the lives of six Naxals and one civilian, the agency said on Tuesday.

The duo, identified as B.Ch. Padma and Dubasi Devender, were picked up by the NIA on Sunday after extensive investigations into the case (also known as the RK Dairy case), said the NIA in a statement. The NIA has so far arrested four accused in the case.

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Padma alias Modem Padma alias Lalita, who was previously active as Divisional Committee Member of CPI (Maoist) or Naxals, was currently acting as a Coordinator between Front organisations and the CPI (Maoist) as well as spreading the ideology of the banned outfit. However, Devender was closely associated with CPI (Maoist) cadres operating in the core area. He was also acting as a courier for CPI (Maoist) and was secretly transporting their communications (both paper-based and digital) and facilitating their anti-national activities.

NIA investigations had revealed that both the accused arrested on Sunday were closely involved with the top leadership of naxals in furtherance of their anti-national activities. The agency had earlier recovered several incriminating material related to the activities of naxal cadres during searches conducted at the premises of the two accused.

Six Maoists and one civilian were killed in the incident, that has come to be known as the Tiriya encounter case. Security forces were attacked by naxal operatives near Tiriya village in Chhattisgarh.

The NIA had taken over the case in 2021, along with several other cases related to naxal conspiracies to carry out acts of terror and violence in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The encounter took place in July 2019, when a Joint team of the local District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had travelled to the forest area near Tiriya in PS Nagarnar area of Jagdalpur District in Chhattisgarh. They had gone there after receiving inputs that a group of naxal cadres had gathered with the intention to perpetrate a big incident on July 28, which is observed as Shaheed Diwas.

Following the encounter, the Security forces had recovered arms and ammunition, as well as several incriminating handwritten documents, literature etc from the site.

The case was initially registered on July 28, 2019, under various sections of the Arms Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It was re-registered by NIA on March 18, 2021.