Maoists kill 6 villagers in self-styled people's court
Jamshedpur/Chaibasa, Mar 14: Maoists today ambushed a police party which was heading towards Manmaru village of West Singhbhum district where six villagers were killed by the ultras yesterday.
The villagers were killed during a 'people's court' set up by the Red brigade, police said.
The rebels reportedly ordered the killing of six villagers-- Litha Odiya, Dange Purti, Hindoo Odiya, Mangu Odiya, Selaya Odiya and Bandiya Odiya--yesterday in their 'people's court' in the village under Tebo police station situated in the dense Porahat forest region, around 20 km from Ranchi-Chaibasa road.
The six were held 'guilty of the murder' of two other villagers--Samu Bodra and Hangra Mundai--who had gone missing on March 3. The duo was said to have been killed owing to some dispute arising out of a game of gambling.
Their family members allegedly approached the Maoists to find them. The ultras recovered their bodies from a forest area and held a self-styled inquiry before convening the 'people's court' to pronounce the 'death sentence' on the six villagers, police added.
This morning when the police party was moving towards the village, the extremists opened fire at them to which the latter retaliated. However, no casualty had been reported so far, though the encounter was still on.
Superintendent of Police Pankaj Kamboj confirming the incident said, "I would be able to say more only after the recovery of the bodies."
Porahat forest is a part of Saranda region, a dreaded den of Naxals where CPI-Maoist was formed by merging the then Peoples War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Center (MCC) in 2004.