A supervisor of a private firm who was returning after lodging a police compliant against militants for alleged extortion was allegedly shot dead by rebels in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on Friday night.

According to police, 32-year-old Vishnu Dev Singh was the supervisor of a private firm which had bagged the contract for the construction of a culvert connecting the road between Kone and Nareshgarh in Sadar block.

Police said Singh had an argument with unidentified members of the Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, a splinter group of the CPI (Maoist), over payment of extortion money a few days ago and also on Friday.

He had gone to Latehar Sadar police station on Friday night to lodge a complaint along with firm owner Vijay Sahu and was returning home on his motorcycle when the rebels shot at him indiscriminately near Bareini More. Singh received six bullet injuries and died on the spot.

Latehar superintendent of police Prashant Kumar said that they were trying to arrest the accused. “We have intensified our combing operations and the rebels are resorting to such tactics out of frustration. We will be arresting the rebels soon as it is a clear-cut case of extortion related killing by the outlawed JJMP,” he said.

Singh’s body was sent for post-mortem to the Latehar Sadar Hospital on Saturday.

Meanwhile, senior police officials, including Palamau deputy inspector-general R.K. Lakra and Latehar superintendent of police (operations) Vipul Pandey reached the spot to oversee the investigation.

Locals claimed that if the rebels had the audacity to kill villagers barely a few kilometres from the CRPF picket and shoot dead a person who was returning after registering a complaint at the local police station, then it meant the morale of the militant outfits was on the up.