Residents and police personnel crowd around the body of dead KLO militant Anirban Rava. Picture by Biplab Basak

Mainaguri (Jalpaiguri), Jan. 2: Jalpaiguri police today gunned down Anirban Rava alias Shyamal Singha, one of the three KLO rebels who opened fire on CPM functionaries in the Dhupguri massacre, in an encounter on Jalpaiguri-Mainaguri road.

The incident happened around 11.45am when the rebel was on his way to collect extortion money from a petrol pump owner in Mainaguri. A 9mm pistol and 13 rounds of live cartridges were found on him.

Inspector-general of police Bhupinder Singh (north Bengal) who reached the spot immediately after the incident said Rava was wanted in several cases, especially the Dhupguri incident, and was a KLO sharpshooter who used to extort money from the local traders and businessmen.

On August 17, 2002, three KLO militants armed with automatic weapons had stormed into the crowded CPM district office at Dhupguri and opened fire. Five CPM functionaries were killed by the bullets and 14 injured.

“The abduction of Gopal Debnath, the Nishigunj-based businessman who was abducted by KLO rebels on December 20, 2003, was masterminded by Rava. He was also among the three rebels involved in the Dhupguri operation. Tom Adhikary had fired only three rounds while Rava had emptied the entire magazine of his AK-47 mowing down the party members on that day,” said Singh.

Today, Rava was on his way to collect the extortion money from the businessmen, a job he is said to have done frequently.

“He had come down from the KLO’s Bucca camp, located in the Bhutan hills, in November to gather funds. The man was going to collect money from some local traders today when our police team chased him. Rava was killed when the police opened retaliatory fire after he shot at the police officials with a 9mm revolver,” Singh said.

The police have also recovered a sum of Rs 7,463 from him along with a diary that contained names and contact numbers of businessmen based in Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Falakata, Mainaguri and Dhupguri, a cell phone, a cash card, a walkman and a bunch of letters that carried extortion threats.

Recalling the incident, a police official who was on the team that chased Rava today said: “He was cycling towards Mainaguri on the Jalpaiguri-Mainaguri road, when our jeep overtook him. A local trader of Mainaguri was supposed to hand him over the extortion money. Our jeep did a U-turn and halted in front of the cyclist, challenging him. He tried to escape by firing at us but we shot him down in retaliation.”

Asked about a Thai baht recovered from the rebel, a senior police officer said: “He might have had links with militants operating in the Northeast who could have given him that currency note. We are trying to find out about that.”