Maoists kill ex-village sarpanch after branding him as police informer

A former sarpanch was killed, allegedly by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district after they suspected him to be a police informer, police said on Tuesday.

Chhannuram Mandavi (55), the ex-Sarpanch of his native Cholnar village, was attacked with sharp edged weapons at his house under Kirandul police station limits late Monday night, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.

As per preliminary information, some armed Maoists stormed into the victim’s house in Cholnar, around 450 kms from here, and slit his throat while he was asleep, killing him on the spot, the SP said.

Soon after getting information, a police team was rushed to the spot and his body was brought for postmortem, he said.

Some Maoists pamphlets were recovered from the spot in which Mandavi was branded as a police informer, the SP said adding that a search has been launched in the forests to nab the assailants.

The victim was also a local Congress leader.

According to police, Mandavi was earlier arrested and jailed in connection with the Maoist attack on the house of Congress leader Avdhesh Gautam in Nakulnar village of Dantewada in 2010. Gautam’s family member and one of his employees were killed in the incident. However, Mandavi was later released, he added.