According to the police, at 4 a.m., information was recieved that the abducted personnel have been kept at Putigarha village in Khuti.

They were taken hostage by villagers supporting the Pathalgadi movement, a rebellion against the government.

When security forces early on Friday entered the village, the abductors fled and the rescue operation was successful.

The four were abducted on June 27, by hundreds of villagers. A massive search operation was launched immediately. More than 2,000 personnel of the police and paramilitary forces were conducting combing operations.

Pathalgadi is an age-old tradition of tribals wherein they erect monoliths in the name of their ancestors on the borders of villages.

From September 2017, the tribals in Khuti had started using Pathalgadi as a form of protest against the Government of India by setting up a parallel administration.

The state government had failed to contain the parallel government run by the tribal Gram Sabha in parts of Khuti.