A group of Naxalites killed the husband of a village sarpanch on suspicion of being a police spy in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place on Wednesday night in Pardoni village in the Manpur police station limits, a Naxalite-affected area located around 170 km from Raipur.
The 47-year-old victim, husband of the Pardoni village sarpanch (panchayat head), was beaten to death, Additional Superintendent of Police Jaiprakash Barhai said.
According to preliminary information, a group of Maoists barged into the victim's house when he was resting after dinner and dragged him out on the street, he said.
They then took him to the village outskirts and thrashed him brutally in front of his family. The victim died on the spot, the official said.
After being alerted, a police team shifted the body to a hospital for post-mortem.
Maoist pamphlets were recovered from the site in which the deceased was accused of being a police informer. The official denied the victim's association with the police.
A search operation has been launched to trace the culprits, the officer said.
According to another police official, on May 8 last year, four Naxalites were killed in a gun battle with police in Pardoni village. The rebels suspected that the victim tipped off the police about the presence of their colleagues.
