Ranchi/Daltonganj: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Saturday claimed that a Maoist was gunned down at Kookoo Piri village under Garu police station of Latehar district but the police said they are verifying the claims of the force after villagers refuted the claims that the deceased was a rebel.
In a press statement, CRPF said it has eliminated an armed Maoist cadre of the Chhotu Khairwar group after an encounter at the forested area of Kookoo Piri in the morning but the villagers claimed that it was stage-managed and said the deceased was one Brahmadev Singh of their locality.
Latehar SP Prashant Anand intervened in the matter to pacify the irate villagers and agreed to verify the antecedents of the deceased.
According to the CRPF’s statement, a joint operation comprising two troops of 203 CoBRA battalion, two assault groups of Jharkhand Jaguar and one company of 214 Battalion of the CRPF went to the forests of Latehar where an encounter took place around 8.30 am.
“The troops later recovered the body of a Naxalite and four weapons,” the statement said.
However, Anand said the deceased could be a villager.
“Villagers usually venture into the forests to hunt wild boars with country-made guns and according to preliminary information, it could be one of the villagers who came in the crossfire,” Anand said.
Local police said the weapons recovered are country-made firearms but claimed that the villagers who went hunting into the forest fired on the security forces in nervousness and in self-defence the security men retaliated.
The villagers are, however, not ready to buy the argument saying that forest dwellers do not venture for hunting on Saturdays and claim that the deceased was killed in cold blood and another sustained injuries in his arm.