Patna, March 4: A lady Maoist gunned down the divisional forest officer of Shahabad range (DFO) then, Sanjay Singh, at Rahel village in Rohtas in 2002. The startling fact came to light during the interrogation of an armed squad member of CPI (Maoist) arrested yesterday.

The rebel, Rajendra Oraon alias DFO alias Tunnu, was arrested from Kauriari village. A pistol and five live cartridges were recovered from his possession.

Oraon, who was then an armed squad member, told the police that a woman squad member, Geeta alias Sushma, a resident of Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, had fired at the DFO, who was in their captivity. The rebels had kidnapped the DFO while he was returning to the district headquarters after routine inspection on February 15, 2002.

Oraon revealed to the police that the killing of the DFO was meticulously planned. Top Maoist leaders hailing from Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh also took part in the operation. “The death sentence was awarded to the DFO because he used to interfere in the day-to-day affairs of village people despite being warned of dire consequences,” he said.

The Maoists killed the DFO to send a message to the senior government officials to not to interfere in their work.

“The motive behind the murder of the DFO was to stop interference of the government officials in the activities of the rebels, who used to run a parallel administration in the area,” Oraon said.

Rohtas superintendent of police Manu Maharaj said the officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been informed about the arrest of Oraon. The CBI had earlier launched a search operation for the arrested Maoist in connection with the DFO murder case, he said.

Sources said the case was being probed by the Delhi unit of the CBI. The CBI would take Oraon on remand for interrogation soon, especially after the involvement of a woman squad member has come to light in the case, the sources added. The CBI took over the investigation of the case on March 23, 2002 on the recommendation of the Rabri Devi-led RJD government in the state then.