Chhattisgarh: BJP leader killed by Maoists in Bastar

Mando Ram Kodium was abducted from his village of Somnapalli by a group of armed Maoists late on Tuesday.

His body was found near the village on Wednesday, police said.

Maoists brutally killed him by slitting his throat, police said.

The Indravati National Park area committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) has claimed responsibility for his killing.

A leaflet found near his body said that he was given the death punishment for spying for the police.

This was the third killing of a BJP leader in Bijapur district in the last one week.

Two ex-sarpanches belonging to BJP were earlier killed by Maoists in two separate incidents.

In another incident, two jawans were on Wednesday injured and a Maoist was gunned down in an encounter in Bijapur district.

The encounter took place in Munga forest under Gangaloor area at around 11 am, a senior police officer of Bastar said.

Acting on intelligence inputs on the presence of senior Maoist leaders such as divisional committee (DVC) member Dinesh Modium, Maoists’ company number two commander Bella and the local militia platoon commander Kamlu along with around 40 Naxals in the forest, a security team of district reserve guard (DRG) was sent to the area to launch a search operation, the police officer said.

The Maoists ambushed the security party leading to an encounter between them.

Body of a Naxal along with a nine mm pistol and explosives was recovered at the encounter site.

The two jawans suffered minor injuries and are out of danger now, police said.