BHAWANIPATNA: The Maoists of Bansadhara-Nagavalli-Ghumsar division struck for the third time in a week and killed former Sarpanch of Trilochanpur panchayat under Lanjigarh block Jayanta Majhi.
His body was found on Bijepur road by villagers of Dangabahal on Wednesday morning. The Maoists also left behind a hand written letter. Preliminary investigation by the police revealed that Majhi of Sapuachanchara village was strangulated to death.
In the letter, the Maoists held Jayanta responsible for the encounter of Maoist with security forces at Sapuachanchara on February 11, 2015 and charged him with being a police informer. They pronounced death sentence for him and warned villagers to refrain from such activities.
According to reports, the Maoists had taken tribals Chandra Majhi, Ganesh Majhi and Jayanta along with them from Sapuachanchara village on the intervening night of October 30 and 31.
However, they released Chandra and Ganesh after severely assaulting them and asked them to collect the body of Jayanta next morning. But, the body was recovered on Wednesday morning with marks of torture and strangulation with a rope.
The incident has triggered fear and panic among the villagers caught in the cross fire between the Maoists and security forces.
In fact, the Maoists have intensified their activity in the district and banners and posters have been displayed in interior pockets of the district.
With the encounter in Malkangiri coming as a major setback and unnerving the banned outfit, the Maoists are trying hard to make their presence felt to ensure that their fight for the under-privileged is not undermined.
The murder comes close on the heels of cold blooded murder of Gram Rakhi of Patalanga village Chemu Harijan on October 27 and Lalu Naik of Salapanga village on October 28 suspecting them to be police informers.