Koraput: Maoists have assaulted four villagers in Malkangiri district suspecting them to be police informers.

The injured villagers, whom the Maoists had abducted a few days ago, returned to their village, Galiaguda, situated on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border early on Sunday.

"Last Tuesday, the Maoists had abducted eight of us. The next day, we were produced before a kangaroo court. Afterwards, they freed four of us but detained us on the charge of helping the police," said Padia Kawasi, who was among the four detained.

Padia said the Maoists kept them at their Dandiapadar camp and grilled them as to why they had been passing on information on the Maoists to the police.

"Though we pleaded innocence, we were not spared. The Maoists said they had collected all information about us and were convinced we are police informers. But we don't have any links with the police," said Adama Padiami, another villager. "We were beaten mercilessly and later freed. They warned us of dire consequences if we helped the police in future."

The other two villagers have been identified as Musumi Durua and Misi Kawasi.

The police said Maoists belonging to the Dharva division were involved in the incident and have dismissed their allegations that the villagers were police informers.

"The abducted villagers were never our informers and we have never received any information from them for our counter-insurgency operations. We have our own mechanism to gather information against the Maoists activities and we never rely on the local villagers," said Malkangiri police superintendent Jagmohan Meena.

He said the Maoists had targeted the villagers to terrorise the other villagers. "Our joint operation with BSF personnel will be intensified in the area in coming days," the SP said.

Sources said the villagers were afraid in the wake of the incident and had not lodged a police complaint fearing a backlash from the rebels.