C'garh attack: NIA plea against probe junked

New Delhi, November 21

Advertisement

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the Chhattisgarh Police probe into an FIR alleging larger conspiracy in the 2013 Jheeram Ghati Naxal attack in which 32 persons, including state Congress leaders, were killed.

Larger conspiracy?

• Top Congress leaders were among 32 killed by Naxals in Jheeram Ghati in 2013
• The NIA had moved the SC against Chhattisgarh Police’s probe into larger conspiracy
• Terming it the biggest political massacre, CM Bhupesh Baghel has hailed the SC order

“Sorry, we would not like to interfere,” a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, dismissing the NIA’s petition.

On May 25, 2013, heavily armed Naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jheeram valley in Darbha area of Bastar district, killing 32 persons, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla.

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel took to X to welcome the top court’s order rejecting the NIA’s petition. “Today’s order of the Supreme Court on the Jheeram case is like opening the doors of justice for Chhattisgarh,” he stated.

Terming it the biggest political massacre in the democratic world, Baghel said, “We lost 32 persons, including Congress leaders.” He said now the Chhattisgarh Police would investigate and find out who the conspirators were.

During the arguments, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju submitted on behalf of the NIA that the larger conspiracy angle into the incident should be investigated by the NIA as the main FIR of the case was investigated by the central agency. He said the NIA had to move the top court as the Chhattisgarh Police refused to hand over the records to it and the trial court rejected its plea. The high court dismissed the NIA’s plea against the trial court order on March 2, 2022.

Senior advocate ANS Nadkarni argued on behalf of the Chhattisgarh government that the state had initially requested the NIA to investigate the larger conspiracy angle of the incident but they refused. “The state government then requested the Centre to entrust the probe of a larger conspiracy to the CBI as NIA had refused to probe. The Centre refused to hand over the probe to the CBI. Then what could the state government do. It asked the police to register the FIR and investigate the larger conspiracy angle,” Nadkarni submitted.