A former Maoist, identified as Naman Kandulna, was killed by the Jharkhand-based Maoists in Goeilkera area, about 60 kms from Jareikela in Sundargarh district.
According to sources, Kandulna, who had quit the banned CPI (Maoist), had returned to his village Pandava under Goeilkera police station in West Singhbhum district to attend the tribal festival Maghe.
On Sunday night, a group of Maoists reached the village and reportedly shot him dead, calling him ‘police broker’. “Efforts are on to retrieve the body,” said Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum SP Pankaj Kamboj. However, he said, as per preliminary report, the murder took place over money dispute.
Kandulna was managing the financial transactions of the outfit’s zonal commander Prasadji and went underground with Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakhs, the SP claimed.
Kandulna had stayed in different places of Odisha. However, other sources said, Kandunla was pressurised by the Maoists to rejoin the outfit on several occasions. But he did not relent to the pressure.
The sources said Kandulna was killed for his suspected closeness to police which led the Maoists to suspect that he was a police informer.
According to sources, over the past three weeks, fresh Maoist activities have been noticed in the extreme end of Saranda connecting Porahat forest and Khunti district along the Odisha-Jharkhand border.