With the arrest of self-styled zonal commander of the Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC) on Monday, the banned ultra outfit in the district was almost wiped out, a senior police officer said.
"With the arrest of Girivar Choudhary in Palamau, the JPC is almost uprooted from the district. His associate Vijay Choudhary was also nabbed after a 30-minute long encounter between the security forces and the ultras early this morning," Deputy Inspector General of Police (Palamau range), L P Singh, told a press conference.
Choudhary, who had first joined the CPI (Maoist), moved to the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) before enrolling himself in the JPC.
He faces at least 18 cases of murder, extortion, arson, loot and other naxal-violence, Singh added.
The encounter took place during anti-naxal operation as the ultras fired upon sighting the police.
Both the TPC and JPC are breakaway groups of the Maoists.
In all, eight rifles, two pistols, 35 cartridges and two mobile handsets were recovered from them, he added.