Chief of the Gumla unit of the banned rebel outfit, Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad (JJMP), Sukar Oraon, was allegedly shot dead by members of his own cadre late on Saturday night at a nondescript village under Ghagra police station, police said.

JJMP rebels riddled Oraon’s body with bullets while he was asleep, and fled with arms, ammunition and cash he had in his possession, sources added.

Police recovered about a dozen empty cartridges from the spot. The bullets were of AK-47 and INSAS rifles, sources said. While the motive behind the murder was not clear yet, prima facie, it seems that Sukar’s aides killed him over levy.

Gumla SP Ehtesham Waquarib did not respond to phone calls from The Telegraph Online on Sunday. However, an inspector rank official in the district police said that disputes over distribution of levy often led to bad blood among insurgents in Jharkhand.

However, police ara not ruljng out the possibility of Oraon dying in an encounter between JJMP and CPI (M). In July, the CPI (Maoist) had issued a poster threatening to kill four JJMP operatives namely Pappu, Ravindra, Sukar and Mandu, accusing the JJMP of spying on their cadres for the police. Oraon was earlier with the CPI (Maoist). In 2009, he ran away from CPI (Maoist) along with weapons. He was a native of Lohardaga.

As per police records, JJMP is one of 17 splinter outfits active in Jharkhand. At least 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected as per figures with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Members of these splinter outfits, police say, are nothing more than hired guns and thugs who have unleashed a reign of terror on villagers in the hinterlands of Jharkhand. They are involved in trafficking children, extorting levy and even killing for sport, police say.

JJMP had claimed responsibility for the killing of BJP leader Jaivardhan Singh in Latehar last year. In 2017, at least three BJP leaders were shot dead by splinter outfits in various districts.