Police on Tuesday recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from Chatra, the district where a coal trader was shot dead by CPI(Maoist) rebels during Chhath festivities recently.

After gunning down CPI (Maoist) sub-zonal commander Alok in the district on Sunday, the district police along with CRPF recovered rifles looted by Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) rebels from police patrolling teams in the past. On Tuesday, the raiding team recovered .303 bore rifle, 189 live .303mm cartridges, at least 237 live .306 cartridges and 18 7.26mm bullets, police said.

Chatra SP Rishabh Jha said police made the recoveries on the basis of a tip-off from intelligence sources. A TPC rebel, arrested earlier, also passed important information to the police during interrogation, he added.

“Krishna Ganju, a TPC rebel who was arrested last week, disclosed the places where they had hidden arms and ammunition which were looted from police teams,” said Jha, adding that Ganju too had a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head.

The police have intensified operations against Left Wing Extremism in Chatra lately. However, they are yet to get a breakthrough in the killing on the day of Chhath. “Anti-naxal operations have obviously intensified here,” said Jha.

While investigation is on to nab the mind behind the killing of coal trader Mukesh Giri on November 21, police are yet to get any major success. “The motive behind the murder is not known yet. But it is confirmed that CPI (Maoist) rebels killed the coal trader,” said the SP.

While CPI (Maoist) is the oldest and the most dreaded LWE group in Jharkhand, TPC is one of the 17 splinter outfits active in some parts of the tribal state, say police. According to police, TPC rebels are nothing more than hired guns and thugs who have unleashed a reign of terror on innocent villagers.