Maoists struck with impunity for the second time within a week in southeast Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday, killing two tribal villagers after branding them police informers.
A group of rebels had abducted Bapu Kanna Enka, 50, and Arjun Bande Talandi, 55, from Joganguda village, around 300 km from Nagpur, on Sunday evening. The rebels brought Enka and Talandi to the village in the morning. They shot Enka and beheaded Talandi in front of the villagers.
Viresh Prabhu, superintendent of police, Gadchiroli, confirmed the murders. He said Enka and Talandi — who used to propagate the Mahatma Gandhi Tanta Mukti Mohim (dispute-free village scheme), which Maoists oppose — were not police informers.
The killings occurred six days after Maoists butchered 12 CRPF personnel in a landmine blast in northern Gadchiroli.
Since January 2010, Maoists have killed 85 civilians including three women and two school students in the district.
Maoists have already killed nearly a dozen villagers in the district this year after branding them police informers.
Gadchiroli-based social worker BV Shekhar, a former Maoist sympathiser, said, “Poor villagers are the most vulnerable because they have to face the rebels at night, when the police are not around.”