Naxals kill husband of village sarpanch in Chhattisgarh

A group of Naxals allegedlykilled the husband of a village sarpanch on suspicion of beinga police informer in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district,police said on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday night in Pardonivillage under Manpur police station limits, a Naxal-affectedarea located around 170 km from the state capital Raipur.

The 47-year-old victim, husband of Pardoni village'ssarpanch (panchayat head), was beaten to death by ultras,Additional Superintendent of Police Jaiprakash Barhai said.

As per preliminary information, a group of ultrasstormed into the victim's house when he was resting afterdinner and dragged him out on street, he said.

The ultras then took him to the village outskirts andthrashed him brutally in front of his family members. Thevictim died on the spot, the official said.

After being alerted about the incident, a police teamrushed to the spot and the body was shifted to a hospital forpost-mortem, he said.

Some Maoist pamphlets were recovered from the spot inwhich ultras accused the deceased of being a police informer.

The official, however, denied the victim's associationwith police.

A search operation has been launched in the area totrace the culprits, he said.

According to another police official, on May 8 lastyear, four Naxals were killed in an encounter with police inPardoni village.

The rebels suspected that the victim gave a tip-off topolice about the presence of their colleagues, he said.

Last month, a villager was gunned down by Naxals inManpur area of the district on suspicion of being a policeinformer.