2 villagers killed by Maoists in Chhattisgarh: Police

Raipur, May 27: Two villagers from insurgency-hit Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, were murdered allegedly by Maoists in separate incidents, police said even as 14 Naxals were arrested in Sukma district.

While an 18-year-old youth identified as Kandru Patel, was murdered in Kondagaon district, another villager Joga Madvi was killed in Dantewada district, a senior police official.

A native of Balasar village under Kondagaon Police Station, Patel had arrived at Heeramandla village yesterday along with his father and a younger brother to visit a local fair, he said.

As per the preliminary information, when he was sleeping alone in the courtyard of the house of a relative in the village, a group of armed naxals stormed the place late in the night, attacked him with sharp weapons and subsequently shot him dead, the official said.

The exact reason behind his killing was not yet known. However, the Maoist pamphlets dropped at the spot claimed that he acting as a police informer, he said.

The body of the victim was handed over to the relatives after the postmortem. In the second incident, Joga's body was found yesterday morning in the hills adjoining Cholnar village under Kirandul Police Station in Dantewada.

He was kidnapped by the rebels from his relative's house in Cholnar Wednesday night, the official said. The relatives of the victim said in their statement that Joga, a native of Jagargunda region of neigbouring Sukma district, was staying in Cholnar from the last few days, he said.

The cause behind his killing was also yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile, 12 Naxals were apprehended yesterday from a jungle under Gadiras police station limits.

Two Maoists were from Tongpal Police Station limits of the district, Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh said.

A joint team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the district police force had launched a combing operation in the interior of Gadiras, around 400 km away from here. While cordoning off Pariya village forest, they nabbed nine suspects, the ASP said.

Those arrested have been identified as Madavi Somda (25), Madvi Hadma (40), Madvi Budhra (27), Madkam Deva (25), Madvi Somda (27), Madvi Deva (22), Podiyami Budhu (30), Madvi Budhra (22) and Madvi Raja (30).

All of them were allegedly involved in damaging a water pipeline of a private steel plant on the intervening night of May 19-20 in Gadiras area, he said. In separate incidents, three other rebels were arrested from Gadiras area and two from Tongpal region, Singh said.

PTI