Security forces on Monday recovered an automatic rifle, its live cartridges and Rs 2.47 lakh in cash stashed away by a Naxal in a forested patch of insurgency-hit Dhamtari district, police said.

The recovery was made in the morning from the forests of Kaatigaon village under Borai police station area based on information provided by a senior Naxal, who was arrested recently, Deputy Inspector General (anti-Naxal operations) Sundarraj P said.

On June 27, the cadre identified as Muiba alias Gaganna alias Dokra, who was active as Divisional Committee member in Mainpur-Nuwapada divisional committee of Maoists, was apprehended by a team of state’s Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) from the forest of Rawas-Amapani villages in Kanker district, he said.

During the interrogation, Muiba disclosed that he had concealed his automatic weapon and cash in Borai forest, he said.

Acting on the input, a team of Special Task Force (STF), SIB and local police, raided the spot and seized one AK 47 rifle, its 28 live rounds, three empty magazines and Rs 2.47 lakh, the DIG added.

Earlier on June 18 this year, Dokras wife Seema, a Sitanadi Divisional Committee member and secretary of the Sitanadi Area Committee of Maoist, was killed in an encounter with the STF personnel in the Borai area of Dhamtari.

Since the encounter, Naxal group operating there had dispersed and its cadres had been roaming in different areas, the IPS officer said. Muiba who was also involved in that encounter, had concealed his weapon in the forest there and was hiding in the forests of neighbouring Kanker district, he said.