Four Maoists killed in encounter with police in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum

As many as four Maoists, including a woman, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district on Monday, officials said. The encounter started around 5 am near Lipunga area under Gua police station limit, around 200 km from Jharkhand's capital Ranchi, they said.

"Four Maoists were killed in the gunfight, while two have been arrested," said Jharkhand Police spokesperson and IG (Operations), Amol V Homkar. He added that an INSAS rifle, two SLRs, three rifles (.303) and a (9mm) pistol were recovered during the search operation.

The IG added that the killed Maoists were identified from the primary sources as zonal commander Kande Honhaga (a resident of Thalkobad in Chaibasa who carried a bounty on his head), sub-zonal commander Singrai alias Manoj (a resident of Jaigur in Chhattisgarh), area commander Surya alias Munda Devgam and a woman cadre Junga Purty alias Marla. According to police, Singrai carried a bounty of ₹10 lakh, Kande ₹5 lakh and Surya ₹2 lakh.


Singrai and Kande were IED experts in the organisation. Singrai was tasked to lay and monitor IEDs in the area, the IG said. The Maoists, who were arrested, were identified as area commander Tiger alias Pandu Hansda and Batri Devgam, he said.

Homkar said that police got a tip-off that some Maoists, including Ajay Mahto, Kande and Singrai from the squads of CPI (Maoist) politburo member Misir Besra and central committee member Anal, had gathered near the Lipunga forests to carry out some major incident.

"On the basis of the input, security forces carried out a joint search operation. When the team reached the area around 5 am, Maoists attacked them. In self-protection, forces also resorted to firing. The gunfight continued for about an hour," Homkar said.