Lucknow, Dec 11 (IANS) Maoists have beheaded a 25-year-old man after branding him a police informer in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, police said Friday.
A group of nearly 10 armed Maoists Thursday beheaded Shiv Prakash, a resident of Pannuganj village in Sonbhadra, some 250 km from here, after holding a panchayat meeting in the village, they added.

“They (Maoists) carried out the gruesome act just to create terror amongst the locals,” police inspector Raveendra Singh told reporters in Sonbhadra.

Police are tightlipped about Prakash being their informer.

The left-wing extremists were disgruntled over the arrest of two of their aides Dec 3 and the killing of their leader Ramvriksh Kol, who died in a gang war among the Moaists.

After killing Prakash, the Maoists apparently directed the villagers to inform the police and fired a few rounds in the air before fleeing from the spot, the official said.

“After the incident, security in the village has been strengthened and we have assured the locals that those involved in the killing would be arrested,” said Raveendra Singh.