A villager was today killed when Maoists opened fire on police while trying to escape a raid at their hideout near Katkari village in Gumla district.
On receiving information that Maoists were hiding in the village, a combined team of CRPF and district police personnel raided a house and arrested CPI (Maoist) sub-zonal secretary Prasad Lakra alias Ashok and two of his associates, Jevan Lakra and Franscis Toppo, Superintendent of Police Bhimsen Tuti said here.
The rest of the rebels ran up the nearby hill and started firing on the police. Their bullets hit a villager, identified as Christopher Gidh, who died on way to hospital, the SP said.
Six modern weapons were seized from their possession by the police after the encounter, he said.
Prasad Lakra was wanted in several naxal-related cases, including the killing of five police personnel in Gumla's Chenpur in 2012, attack on Chenpur police station and blowing up a block office, the SP said.
