Latehar police on Sunday arrested seven hardcore rebels of the CPI(Maoist) who were allegedly part of the team that gunned down three home guard jawans and an ASI ranked official of Latehar police on November 22, ahead of Assembly elections.

The arrested rebels are said to be associated with dreaded Maoist Ravindra Ganjhu. They were identified as Baijnath Ganjhu, Kunwar Ganjhu, Rajesh Ganjhu, Sunil Ganjhu, Faguna Ganjhu, Sanjay Ganjhu and Naresh Ganjhu.

On the night of November 22, the patrolling policemen were killed at Lukaiya More on NH 39 under Chandwa police station.

“The arrested accused are associated with CPI(Maoist) and provide logistics support to rebels. They were directly involved in the murder of the four policemen, ASI Sukra Oraon and home guard jawans Shambhu Prasad Sahu, Yamuna Prasad and Sikandar Singh. The policemen were patrolling in a PCR van. This attack was executed by CPI(Maoist) sub-zonal commander Ravindra Ganjhu and his armed squad,” DIG of South Chhotanagpur A.V. Homkar told the media.

Latehar police had formed a special team to probe the police murders.

On Sunday, police got an input about rebels who had come to collect levy from a contractor on behalf of Ravindra. Police learnt about a bike (JH01CW 7773). First, three rebels were tracked down at Saroj Nagar in Chandwa. The arrested trio spilled the whereabouts of four more.

They accepted their involvement in Lukaiya Mor ambush case, the police said, and named other rebels who were part of the team that planned and executed the murders. Many rebels kept track of the movement of cops and passed the information on wireless sets that fateful November night.

Forty live bullets that the rebels had looted from the police, blood-stained pouches and clothes of the police were recovered. These apart, three Aadhaar cards, three bikes, Rs 5 lakh, which the rebels collected as levy from contractor Sonu Singh, were among the items seized.