The Chhattisgarh police on Thursday (August 21, 2025) said they had received information about Maoists killing a youth after labelling him as a police informer in Kanker district on August 17.
A video of the purported victim — Manish Nuereti, a resident of Binagunda village under the Chhottebetiya Police Station — unfurling the Tricolour on Independence Day surfaced on social media. Chhottebetiya is the same area where 29 Maoists were killed in the first big encounter of 2024.
“We have received information about the killing of Manish Nuereti. Further information is being collected, and appropriate action will be taken after due verification of facts,” said Bastar Inspector General of Police P. Sundarraj.
In the undated video, Mr. Nuereti is seen unfurling the Tricolour on what appears to be a Maoist memorial and celebrating with a bunch of children.
Body yet to be recovered
While it has been four days since the incident took place in Binagunda village, the police are yet to recover the body or contact the villagers because a swollen Kotri river, a tributary of Indravati, has cut off the area. Also the phone connectivity remains interrupted. Kanker Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela said on Thursday that the police were yet to speak to the family or establish the exact sequence of events.
Another police officer told The Hindu that a banner was found in a less affected area in the Maoist zone informing about the said murder and the Maoists taking responsibility for the same. “In the banner, the names of Nuereti and others were written calling them police informers and blaming them for encounters in which Naxals were killed,” said the officer.
Mr. Elesela told journalists that it was being probed whether Mr. Nuereti had any past connections with the police and added that often Maoists used such claims as a pretext to kill villagers.
Published – August 21, 2025 10:24 pm IST
