Rourkela, December 19: Maoists today handed over the body of Special Operations Group personnel Laxman Kissan, killed in a gunbattle between the two sides in Orissa’s Sundargarh district, to his family in neighbouring Jharkhand.
Kissan’s body was handed over to his mother and four sisters at Bansanala in Orissa-Jharkhand border where they had gone with villagers after assurances by Maoist leader Samarji, who is the ‘area commander’ of Chhotanagpur area.
The family carried the 28 year-old personnel’s body and later handed it over to the police at Birsa, about 15 km away, for postmortem, police said.
The SOG personnel was killed during a gunbattle on Saturday at Chirubeda in Saranda forest area, 30 kms from here, and Samarji had told mediapersons earlier in the day that the body was with them and would be handed over to his family “with honour”.
“Kissan was injured in the gunbattle.
–Agencies