Maoists kill regional commander wanting to surrender in Jharkhand’s Latehar

Latehar, Nov 27: Infamous Maoist commander carrying a bounty of Rs15 lakh was killed by his own as he was planning to surrender in Latehar’s Nawadih area on Tuesday night. Police recovered his body, marking a significant setback for the CPI (Maoist) in Jharkhand. The killed Maoist commander has been identified as Chhotu Kharwar alias Sujit Ji.

A senior police officer said, “Kharwar was on talks with police and was supposedly to surrender before us in the next few weeks.”

According to Jharkhand Police, Kharwar along with this team was active in Latehar, Palamu, Garhwa, Chatra, and Gumla districts.

Inspector General of Police (IG) and Jharkhand Police spokesperson AV Homkar talking to The Avenue Mai said, “Chhotu was wanted in more then 100 cases, including extortion, murder, and attacks on security forces.”

The IG further added that the killed Maoist commander was involved in most of the major incidents in the Latehar, Palamu and Gumla districts.

Homkar did not clear the reasons behind Chhotu’s killing. “It will be to early to comment. We are still investigating,” added the IG.

However according to sources, Chhotu was planning to surrender with few other Maoist cadres which was learnt by Maoist ranks.

The killed regional commander carried a bounty of Rs15 lakh on his head by Jharkhand Police and another Rs three lakh was announced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his arrest.

Chhotu was a native of Chhipadohar Sikid village in Latehar and was known as “Sujit Ji” within Maoist ranks.

Chhotu’s financial dealings had also come under scrutiny after Balumath police seized Rs three lakh from a chit fund company manager who alleged the amount belonged to Chhotu in 2016. During the investigation, a deposit slip surfaced, indicating Chhotu had invested Rs 26 lakh. This findings led to the NIA taking over the case in 2018.