According to the police from Gaya district, Maoists have put Darogi Singh Bhokta, the head of the Chhakarbandha panchayat, and his family under house arrest and have locked the house of Manoj Paswan, who is the head of the Mahuri panchayat.
Both panchayats fall in the Dumaria block under the Sherghati sub-division in Gaya, about 100 km from Patna.
"Maoists forced Darogi Singh Bhokta to be confined to his house and did not allow Manoj Paswan to enter his house. In both cases, Maoists have not used violence, but instead they have chosen peaceful methods to punish the village heads," a police official told rediff.com over the telephone.
The police rescued Bhokta late on Tuesday night and opened the house of Paswan.
Last November, Maoists had forced 33 candidates to withdraw their nominations for the upcoming panchayat by-polls in the Dumaria in Gaya. "Fear of Maoists forced them to withdraw their papers on the last day of filing nominations" said a district official.
The withdrawal of nominations was the result of a diktat issued by Maoists to all the candidates in the fray.
According to the police, Bhokta and Paswan then refused to withdraw their nominations, contested polls and emerged winners.
Dumaria is considered to be a stronghold of left-wing ultras.
In May 2010, nearly 900 candidates had withdrawn their nominations in Maoist-infested Gaya and Aurangabad districts, fearing the wrath of Maoists. The Maoists have been calling for a poll boycott in Bihar for several years now. But in the past few elections, their calls had failed to dissuade voters.
In the assembly polls in Bihar last year, voters had scoffed at the Maoists' boycott call and turned out in large numbers.
