Nuapada, Nov. 20: Five days after Maoists killed a ward member of Khuripani village in Balangir district, they have allegedly killed Nuapada Panchayat Samiti chairman Sunil Debangan.

Police found the body of Debangan near Godhas waterfall inside Sunabeda sanctuary this morning.

The police have also reportedly seized some posters from the spot which narrated the Maoists’ version of why they killed him. Nuapada police superintendent Sanjaya Kaushal said the police had seized the body of Debangan and sent it for post-mortem.

“We are yet to ascertain why the rebels killed him. But from the posters we have seized, it seems that the reason behind his death may be that he was a police informer. He has also been termed as ‘anti-people’,” he said.

Nuapada deputy police superintendent Prafulla Patra said the rebels had fired when the police went to trace Debangan’s body this morning. “The Maoists fired from their hideout. But, no one was injured,” Patra said.

Sources in the police said two persons, suspected to be Maoist sympathisers, called Debangan from his house in Dharambandha village to attend a meeting. The two returned late in the evening and said it was the Maoists who had called them. They said the Maoists had allowed them to return, but didn’t release Debangan.