A group of seven armed Naxals went to Kanhaura village around 9.30 pm and shot dead Umesh Mallah, who ran a general merchant shop. Before leaving, the miscreants threatened the villagers not to inform the police. On Wednesday, the police arrested two locals — Sant Kumar and Baba — in connection to the murder.

Sonbhadra SP Ram Kumar said: “The gang was led by Munna Vishwakarma who has his hideouts in Bihar’s Rohtas area. Sant Kumar knew Munna and had used the Naxals to settle personal scores with Mallah.” Sant had allegedly told the Naxals that Mallah was a police informer, which was wrong, he added.

The last Naxal action in Uttar Pradesh was seen in 2001, when a PAC camp was attacked at Ahiraura post in Mirzapur. The Naxals had escaped with 15 self-loading rifles and ammunition. The Sonbhadra police had arrested 26 Naxals and killed one in an encounter in 2008.

However, in spite of receiving information about the killing, the police kept waiting for dawn to visit the crime spot. Varanasi Zone IG Gurdarshan Singh said: “There are several instances where Naxals, after killing someone, had planted landmines under the body to target policemen. Keeping this in mind, I had asked the Sonbhadra police not to move during the night.”

“Besides, there was also an alert from the intelligence agencies about a probable Naxal attack on the eve of Republic Day. Therefore, the police force, including me, the DIG and the SP went to the spot only after the Anti-Sabotage Squad had scanned the vicinity,” he added.