Midnapore, March 10: A top Maoist leader suspected to be Sasadhar Mahato, the alleged mastermind of the Jnaneswari Express sabotage, was killed in an encounter with police in West Midnapore today.

A senior police officer said the body could be of Sasadhar but added that the cops were not sure because half of the face had been blown off by bullets.

“We think the dead Maoist is Sasadhar Mahato. We will contact his family members and relatives and ask them to come and identify the body,” said Manoj Verma, the West Midnapore police chief.

A Maoist source said the rebels had no information about Sasadhar’s death.

Another police officer said the joint forces raided a jungle near Jamboni’s Chansaro village this afternoon on a tip-off that a group of Maoist armed squad members had assembled there.

“The joint forces entered the dense forest around 2.30pm. Around 4.30, our sources confirmed that the Maoists were present inside the forest. Then the team called in reinforcements from Jhargram, 20km away,” the officer said.

He said the outnumbered rebels started fleeing when they saw the joint force personnel approaching.

“They realised that we were trying to surround them. The Maoists started firing at the forces and fled towards Chansaro village. The forces retaliated and the encounter continued for 20 minutes,” the officer added.

“When the firing from the rebels’ side stopped, the police started combing the area. After some time, the police found the body of a Maoist lying in a field on the outskirts of the jungle,” the officer said.

He said an AK-47 rifle and four spent magazines were found beside the body. “Half of the face was blown off by bullets,” the officer said.

Sources in the police said several cops and local people who knew Sasadhar suspected the body could be of the Maoist action squad leader. Also, the sources said, only top rebel leaders carried AK-47 rifles.

Jhargram police chief Praveen Tripathi said Sasadhar’s wife Suchitra was accompanying the rebel leader. “Our men saw a woman fleeing with the Maoists. We suspect she was Suchitra,” Tripathi said. He said another Maoist squad leader, Chaina, had suffered injuries during the encounter. “But he managed to escape,” the officer said.

West Midnapore SP Verma said Sasadhar, 45, was behind most of the major Maoist attacks on the security forces in Jungle Mahal since 2004. “He had more than 70 warrants pending against him in Lalgarh alone,” Verma added.

The police sources said Sasadhar was mostly active in Lalgarh before the joint forces arrived there in end 2008. During the Lalgarh movement, the Maoist leader shifted base to an area near Binpur and Jamboni.

Sasadhar’s elder brother Chhatradhar Mahato has been in jail since September 2009. Chhatradhar was the spokesperson of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities.

The police sources said Sasadhar was one of the three most prominent Maoist squad leaders in Jungle Mahal, the other two being Bikash and Akash.

“Bikash is the only rebel leader in Bengal who is a tribal. He is believed to have shifted base from Lalgarh to Nayagram. Akash oversees the Jungle Mahal area, which is spread across West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia,” a police officer said.