Armed cadres of the banned Maoist outfit shot down a villager in Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh on charges of espionage on late Friday night, June 7, said police.
The incident occurred under the Dhanaura police station limits of Kondagaon, where the outlaws opened fire on a youth returning from a wedding ceremony in a nearby village. The deceased youth has been identified as Dinesh Mandavi, a resident of Timdi village under Dhanura police station limits in Kondagaon.
According to the details of the incident, Mandavi was returning from a nearby village when the extremists fired shots at him from behind and escaped. Mandavi was then immediately rushed to the hospital in Keshkaal, where the doctors declared him dead.
It’s been learned that the deceased youth was associated with the intelligence wing of the local police and worked as an informer. As of now, the police have launched a probe into the incident, and search operations in the area have intensified to nab the Maoists involved in the attack.
The development occurred amidst a major operation launched by the security forces near the inter-district border of Narayanpur district, resulting in the neutralisation of as many as seven Maoists on Friday.
The operation was launched by a joint team of personnel from the District Reserve Guard, the Indo-Tibet Police Force, and Central Reserve Police Force following inputs of the presence of Maoists in the area.
After a brief exchange of fire between the joint team and the outlaws, bodies of as many as 7 Maoists in uniforms have been recovered from the spot. The joint team during the operation also seized weapons and ammunition from the encounter site.
Speaking with the media, Sundarraj P, Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, informed that a total of six Maoists killed in the action were carrying bounties on their heads ranging from one to eight lakhs.
It is worth mentioning here that of late, the security forces have intensified counter-insurgency operations in Maoist affected areas of the Bastar division of the state, leading to the neutralisation of over a hundred cadres of the outlawed Maoist outfit in a span of a few months alone.
