The incident in Segaisai village in West Singhbhum district, about 300 km from here, took place in the early hours of the morning when two members of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) went there to collect money and threaten the villagers against helping the police, officials said.

Members of the Village Defence Committee (VDC) caught both the guerrillas and started thrashing them. While one of them managed to escape, the other was beaten to death, police said.

VDCs have been formed by police to help in the fight against the rebels and to prevent them from spreading their ideology and terror.

Maoist guerrillas are active in 18 of Jharkhand's 24 districts. Nearly 1,550 people have been killed in Maoist-related violence in the last eight years.