Maoist with Rs 15 lakh bounty killed in Jharkhand gunfight

An area commander of the banned Maoist splinter group People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), carrying a bounty of ₹15 lakh on his head, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jharkhand's Gumla district, police said on Wednesday.

The exchange of fire broke out between PLFI members and security personnel around 9.30 pm the previous night in the Changabadi Upartoli area under the Kamdara Police Station limits when forces were carrying out a search operation, a senior officer said.

In another incident, a Maoist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Wednesday, a senior police official said. The encounter took place in the forest in the western part of the district when a joint team of security forces was out on an anti-Maoist operation, said inspector general of police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P. So far, the body of a Maoist with a weapon had been recovered from the site, he said.