A rebel belonging to the banned PLFI, who carried a bounty of Rs 15 lakh on his head, was gunned down in a joint operation of the state police and CRPF on Monday morning at a jungle in Murhu block of Khunti district, around 60km south of the state capital.

“Our forces have gunned down PLFI zonal commander Jidan Gudia after a brief gun battle. No casualties have been reported on our side,” said Khunti SP Ashutosh Shekhar, adding that search operations were on in the adjoining areas to nab his associates who could be in hiding in the jungles.

Shekhar said that the encounter occurred at 8.30 am on Monday. Security forces recovered an AK-47 rifle and live cartridges from Gudia’s possession after shooting him dead.

Earlier this month, Jharkhand police had released a picture of Gudia and announced a prize of Rs15 lakh for anyone with information about his location. Secret informers disclosed Gudia’s location to police in Khunti and the security forces subsequently planned a surprise strike Sunday night, sources said.

Sources in the CRPF said the rebels opened fire at the security forces and Gudia was killed when the security personnel retaliated. Gudia’s aides, however, escaped taking advantage of the dense forest.

Founded by self-proclaimed ex-army man Dinesh Gope, PLFI is one of the 17 splinter outfits in Jharkhand. The rebel outfit, according to police, has unleashed a reign of terror on innocent villagers in parts of Khunti, Ranchi, Simdega and Gumla. They extort money from businessmen, police said.

Gudia, who was the prime accused in several cases of arson and killings, had escaped the clutches of security forces a couple of times in the recent past. The state police had recently intensified operations against Left Wing Extremist (LWE) groups and announced a bounty on at least a dozen rebels.

State DGP M.V. Rao had said last week that police were seeking the help of local residents to trace insurgents.

On December 3, police arrested PLFI area commander Krishna Yadav from a village in Lohardaga district. In the same week, a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from a PLFI hideout in Latehar.

As per figures with the Union home ministry, at least 19 of 24 districts in Jharkhand are LWE-affected. Besides the main CPI (Maoist), there are over a dozen splinter outfits like PLFI active in the state.