Ranchi, Dec 21 (PTI) A regional commander of the outlawed Peoples' Liberation Front of India (PLFI), wanted by the police for involvement in over 100 criminal cases, was on Monday killed in a gunbattle with security forces in Jharkhand's Khuti district.

Jidan Gudiya, who carried a reward of Rs 15 lakh on his head, was gunned down in a joint operation by the state police and the CRPF in the forests of Koyangsar in the district, Inspector General of Police Saket Kumar Singh told PTI.

Singh said an AK-47 has also been recovered from the area.

Based on a tip-off about the movement of Gudiya and other PLFI members in Koyangsar, a joint team of the district police and the CRPF launched an operation this morning and retaliated when the Maoists opened fire, he said.

Though Gudiya was killed in the gunbattle, other members of the squad managed to escape and search is on to trace them.

Singh said Dinesh Gope, the top commander of PLFI, with a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head, might have been a part of the group that fled, taking advantage of the dense forest cover.

Police is trying to contact family members of Gudiya, who had been evading arrest for more than a decade, to hand over his body, Singh added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)