Bhubaneswar, July 7: Maoists struck again in Malkangiri district, killing a former naib sarpanch last night, suspecting him of being a police informer. His body was found today.

Police said the rebels suspected Gangadhar Chalan, 45, of being a police informer. A group of 30 gun-wielding Maoists stormed the house of Chalan at his village Atalguda in Khairput block and asked him to come out.

When Chalan refused to oblige, the rebels dragged him out, slit his throat and shot him. Later, the Maoists dumped the body by the road and warned villagers not to inform the police.

Ignoring Chalan’s wife and family’s pleas, the rebels assassinated him in full public view to send across a chilling message.

Chalan, a small-time contractor, was popular in his village. Police officials maintained that though Chalan had never acted as a police informer, the Maoists suspected that he had been passing on information that had helped the cops to make a number of successful attacks on their hideouts.

“They are keeping a close watch on people they suspect of passing on information to the police. The brutal killing of Chalan is a message to others,” said a government officer posted in the area.

Chalan’s murder was the third one perpetrated by the Red rebels in the last three months in Khairput block of Malkangiri district. On March 13, a police official K.C. Rath was mowed down and later the Maoists eliminated a tribal leader, suspecting him to be a police informer.

On June 25, rebels had killed 50-year-old Pidika Serbo at his native village Gumudaput in Narayanpatna area in the adjacent Koraput district.

On May 23, Maoists had killed another tribal politician Deb Jagaranga in neighbouring Rayagada district. With the help of his wife Lakeri, Deb used to carry out developmental work including construction of roads, which Maoists oppose.

In a related development, director-general of police Prakash Mishra, who assumed office yesterday, met chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and home secretary U.N. Behera today and discussed various issues.

After the meeting, Mishra told reporters that combing operations would be intensified against Red rebels. Sources said the police force in the Maoist-affected districts would be asked to co-ordinate with the central paramilitary forces and start night operations.

An attempt would be made to segregate the Odisha-based Maoists from their counterparts in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.