A 25-year-old man lost his leg in a landmine blast on Wednesday when he went to graze his cattle at the Dumaria forest in Kolhaiya panchayat in Chatra.

Gobardhan Singh Bhokta went to feed his cattle to the forest like other days but on Wednesday evening, he accidentally stepped on a landmine, planted by Maoists to target police personnel on patrol, resulting in the blast.

The blast was so powerful that besides losing his leg, Bhotka suffered injuries on his chest, chin and other parts of the body. It happened at around 6 pm but the youth remained at the site for more than three hours, screaming for help, until villagers searching for him came to his rescue at around 9 pm.

On recovering Bhotka in a pool of blood, the villagers informed the Rajpur police, whose team arrived along with CRPF officials. Bhotka was then sent to the Chatra Sadar Hospital, but his critical condition prompted doctors to shift him to RIMS, Ranchi.

Sub-divisional police officer Avinash Kumar, who went to Chatra Sadar Hospital, sent a police official to Ranchi with Bhokta. He assured his family of help and even aided them financially for treatment.

Kumar said he is following this case and if needed, will help Bhokta again.

This is the second time in less than 10 days that such an incident has happened in the area. On January 13, 45-year-old Sohrai Bhuiyan also sustained severe injuries in his leg in a similar incident at the Bandarchunwa forest in Huntergunj block.

The Chatra Police said that they were conducting regular operations to nab the Maoists and have alerted the patrolling teams as well as villagers about the landmines.