Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday said Maoist leader Vikram Gowda, who was shot dead in an alleged encounter with the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF), was carrying "deadly" weapons, and rejected calls for a probe into the killing.

More than 20 teams of Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) and local police on Wednesday continued to hunt for the associates of slain Maoist Vikram Gowda in the thick forest

Vikram Gowda was killed in the first gunfight in the region since February 5, 2005, when suspected Maoist Saketh Rajan was killed in Menasinahadya in Chikkamagaluru

According to police sources, Vikram Gowda was among a group of eight remaining underground Naxals from Karnataka.

Vikram Gowda, killed in an alleged encounter with the Anti Naxal Force (ANF) commandos late on Monday night, was a class 4 dropout from the tribal Malekudiya community, who grew to be a prominent Maoist leader.

In first such operation in the southern state in 13 years, the ANF of the Karnataka police gunned down senior Maoist leader Vikram Gowda during an encounter in the Kabbinale forests of Udupi district