Bhubaneswar, Nov. 24: Maoists have allegedly gunned down a guard at Dasmantpur village within the limits of Baipariguda police station in Koraput district, around 500 kilometres away from here, last night suspecting him to be a police informer.

The deceased was identified as Gourchandra Dalei, 50. Baipariguda police have recovered his body from Hatapada and sent it to the Baipariguda Community Health Centre for post-mortem.

Sources said that Dalei was attending a sankirtan (religious programme) organised by some villagers when some 20 armed rebels came to the village between 10 and 11pm yesterday. They called Dalei out of the sankirtan venue and took him to Hatapada, which is around half-a-kilometre from the village.

The rebels shot him on his head and chest there. The villagers came to know about his death early this morning. The killers had also allegedly left some posters on the spot of the murder mentioning that Dalei was killed for being a police informer.

“Dalei has been shot from point blank range. We are conducting an inquiry into the matter,” said inspector in charge of Baipariguda police station Niranjan Parida, adding that Dalei was not a police informer.

“Our search operation is going on to catch the Maoists,” he added.