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One Maoist was arrested while three others, including sub-zonal commander Ajay Yadav who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, were found dead in a forest area under Mohammadganj police station limits of Palamu district on Friday morning. Yadav was involved in the Kala Pahad landmine blast case in which seven policemen were killed in the district on January 27 last year.
Police said it appeared that the Maoist cadres had a gunfight among themselves. They denied the role of Tritiya Prastuti Committee, a Maoist splinter group. “It is certainly not a case of TPC and Maoists engaging in a gunfight. Had that been the case, we could not have recovered so many weapons. They don’t leave weapons on the spot,” said DIG (Palamu) Vipul Shukla.
A joint team of the CRPF and district police rushed to the forests near Sita Chuan area after receiving information about the bodies early on Friday, police said. “We have recovered three bodies from the spot. One of the bodies was that of Ajay Yadav, 39. The arrested person has been identified as Uday Oraon. The identity of the two others is being verified though the the arrested person has claimed that their names are Surendra and Virendra,” said Shukla, adding that at least one AK-47, SLR, INSAS, .303 rifle, .315-bore fire arm and a semi-automatic rifle have been recovered in the search operation, besides ammunition and 11 mobile phones.
Shukla said that Yadav was involved in orchestrating most of the Maoist attacks in this region and had more than a dozen cases registered against him in different police stations of Palamu and Latehar. “He had engineered the Kala Pahad IED blast. Though lower in rank, he controlled Maoist activity in the border areas of Palamu and Latehar,” he said.
Combing and search operations have been launched on a massive scale across Latehar and Palamu over the past six days, police said. “It is possible that the Maoists had gathered in this area and there was some argument that led to a fight. Further probe is on,” said Shukla.
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