Naxalites have claimed that they killed a police constable who went missing on April 28 in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district, the police said on Saturday.
A press statement issued in the name of outlawed CPI (Maoist) said that Assistant Constable Manoj Netam had been killed, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said.
The statement said the Naxalites could not return the body to the family. This is probably for the first time that Naxalites have said they cannot return a body. Usually, the Maoists dump bodies by the roadside or inside jungles, the officer said. Efforts to trace Netam would continue, he added.Netam, posted at the Kodekurse police station in Kanker district, left on April 28 after his duty without informing anyone where he was going, the officer said. Two days later his motorcycle was found abandoned on a road near Bhurke village in Kodekurse area which borders on Rajnandagaon district.