A woman anganwadi worker was allegedly strangulated to death by Naxals on suspicion of working for police in front of residents of Kohkodi village in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Kondagaon district, police said today.
The naxals hanged the woman's body from a tree and threatened the villagers against disclosing the incident.
A senior police officer said the brutality with which the woman was killed shows that the ultras are frustrated due to heavy loss of cadres in gun battles with the police in recent past.
"The incident took place on April 23 in Kohkodi village under Mardapal police station limits. However, it came to light yesterday when a police team was carrying out a search operation in that area," Kondagaon Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallav told PTI.
The deceased was identified as Parwati Korram alias Sarita (20), he said.
As per preliminary information, a group of naxals had reached Kohkodi village, located around 300 kms away from the state capital, last Monday when they found the ringtone of Chhattisgarh police (stored) on the mobile phone of Korram, he said.
"They also found a contact number of a woman 'gopniya sainik' (a secret trooper recruited as an auxiliary personnel) stored in Korram's mobile phone, following which they dragged her outside her house," the SP said.
He said the naxals thrashed the woman while accusing her of working at the behest of police and delivering messages of police to the aganwadi children, he said.
The officer said the Maoists then strangulated Korram to death in front of the villagers gathered at the spot and hanged her body from a tree.
Before leaving the spot, the ultras threatened villagers of dire consequences if they disclose the incident to anyone, the SP said.
When a police team reached the village during an operation yesterday, they came to know about the incident, he said.
"The preliminary investigation revealed that Korram had stored the contact number of the 'gopniya sainik', who had served as an anganwadi worker, on her mobile phone as she knew her from the past," the SP said.
Later, the villagers performed last rites of Korram and buried her body.
"We have sought permission of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to exhume Korram's body. We hope that the body would be exhumed tomorrow," he said, adding that further action will be taken accordingly.
Recently, the Maoists in Chhattisgarh and neighbouring Maharashtra have suffered huge setback, with at least 49 ultras, including senior cadres, having been killed in separate encounters with police in these two states.
Ten naxals, including seven women, were killed in separate exchanges of fire with security forces in Sukma and Bijapur districts of Chhattisgarh on April 27 and 28.
Earlier last week, at least 39 Maoists were gunned down in the operations carried out by police in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, bordering Bijapur.
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