Post News Network
Angul, Feb 13: Maoists hacked a man to death in Patamunda village in Pallahara police limits in Angul district late Thursday night suspecting that he was a police informer, police said Friday.
The victim was identified as Samuel Bodra, a contractor.
The rebels, before leaving, put up eight posters in the villager under Bandhabhuin panchayat in which the Kalinganagar Divisional Committee of CPI (Maoists) claimed responsibility for the killing.
The posters claimed Samuel had encroached upon large tracts of farmlands and was working as a contractor. Samuel was also making poor people work without payment, they alleged. He was also providing police inputs about Maoist activities, the rebels said in the posters. The Maoists also paid homage to one of their comrades who was killed during a police operation.
About 15 rebels arrived at Samuel’s house while he was having dinner last night, police said. The Maoists asked him to follow them to the nearby forest for a discussion. When Samuel hesitated and tried to shut the door, they dragged him out.
The rebels then hit him with a crowbar and later tied his limbs before hacking him to death.
Villagers found Samuel’s body this morning and informed police, who sent the body for post-mortem.
Special Operation Group (SOG) jawans and police personnel have launched an intensive combing operation inside Bandhabhuin forest to nab the killers.
Sources said Samuel was earlier working for the Maoists, adding that Telkoi police in Keonjhar had detained him in 2012 several times but not arrested him. Later Samuel started working as a police informer and based on his input Keonjhar police arrested a dreaded Maoist in 2012. Residents of the area suspect the arrest of the ultra might have prompted the Maoists to seek revenge.
This is the first killing of a villager by Maoists in the area.
