A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday convicted all 10 accused in the 2013 Jirham Valley Maoist attack that left 29 people, including some senior Congress leaders, dead.
On May 25, 2013, Maoist ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders during the party’s Parivartan Rally in Jhiram valley under Darbha police station limits in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. The dead included the then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former union minister Vidyacharan Shukla.
Quantum of punishment on Sept 6
Special Judge of the National Investigation Agency court in Jagdalpur, Abhay Singh Rajput, convicted the 10 accused, including 2 women, defence lawyer Arvind Choudhary was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The order on the quantum of punishment has been reserved for September 16, he said, adding that statements of 101 witnesses were recorded during the trial, he said.
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“We will appeal against the verdict in the higher court. We have not received the copy of the judgment yet. We will be able to give the grounds for appeal after receiving it,” Choudhary said.
Attack that wiped out top Cong leadership in Chhattisgarh
Twenty-nine persons, including Congress leaders, civilians and security personnel, were killed and more than 30 others injured in the attack, which virtually wiped out the party’s top leadership in the state at the time.
While the Bastar police initially registered the case, it was subsequently handed over to the NIA days after the attack, after the Congress alleged security lapses on the part of the state government and police.
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The NIA filed its chargesheet in the special court at Jagdalpur in September 2014 and, over the course of its investigation, presented 101 witnesses along with supporting documents.
In 2023, the agency also issued a public advertisement seeking further information related to the case.
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The case has seen parallel tracks of investigation and inquiry over the years, including two judicial commissions constituted to probe the incident, as well as separate investigations carried out by the NIA and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) at different levels.
The matter has also seen legal battles beyond the trial court, as in 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea by the Chhattisgarh government challenging a judicial commission’s refusal to examine additional witnesses.
With inputs from agencies
