A dreaded rebel of CPI (Maoist) Santosh Yadav alias Alok, carrying Rs 10 lakh cash prize on his head was gunned down during a joint anti-naxal operation of CPRF, Jharkhand Police and Bihar Police on Saturday night at Mahuari village under Barachatti police station of Gaya district of Bihar.
Mahuari is a bordering village of Chatra district of Jharkhand and Gaya district of Bihar. During the encounter two civilians, Birendra and Jairam, also died as they were allegedly shot dead by rebels. Four jawans of the CoBRA battalion of the CRPF were also injured. Security forces recovered Insas and AK 47 rifle, one each from the possession of rebels.
“Encounter took place late at night on Saturday. 205 battalion of CoBRA of CRPF and Bihar police had executed the encounter whereas Chatra police had provided necessary intelligence inputs about this extremist and movement of his armed squad. Jharkhand police had announced Rs 10 lakh cash prize on him. In Chatra he was wanted in over a dozen criminal cases. He was active in CPI (Maoist) from the past 18 years,” said Chatra SP Rishav Kumar Jha.
A native of Sikid Sindwari village under Chatra district, Alok was operating as zonal commander of CPI (Maoist) in Kauleswari zone comprising parts of Gaya and Chatra.
Informing about the incident, a senior official of Chatra police said Alok along with his armed squad was looking out for Birendra who had gone to Mahuari village to inaugurate an orchestra programme.
Rebels opened fire at the crowd and abducted Birendra who was identified as brother-in-law of Sharda Devi, mukhiya of Nadarpur panchayat. His elder brother Shambhu Yadav was also murdered by rebels in 2009.
People quickly informed local police about the incident. Coincidently, security personnel of 205 CoBRA battalion were carrying out a search operation in the same locality to verify inputs of movement of Alok Yadav and his armed squad. CRPF assisted by the local police quickly reached the spot. Encounter continued for 40 minutes with over 200 rounds of firing.