Malkangiri: In a big achievement for Police, a hard core Maoist leader Damdar was shot dead in an exchange of fire on Thursday. Damdar was carrying a bounty of Rs 50 lakh on his head.Damdar was killed in the exchange of fire between police and Maoists. The Maoists in a press release gave this information. He was a top tier maoist leader and the Maoist commander state committee member. He was also the state committee head of Telangana.In the recent exchange of fire between Maoists and police 18 Maoists have been killed. Earlier police had informed that 12 maoists were killed in the encounter. On Saturday, a huge bunker belonging to Maoists was nabbed by the police in Bijapur district of ChhattisgaThe search operation was conducted by the combined efforts of STF, DRG, CRPF Cobra and Bastar Fighters. The anti-Maoist operation is being conducted under the leadership of Bastar IG Sundarraj P.