RAIPUR: A confrontation seems to be developing between the Centre and the Chhattisgarh government after the state asked the Union home ministry to reconsider its decision to hand over the probe into the killing of BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The Union home ministry recently issued an order saying that the NIA would investigate the Maoist attack that killed the MLA.
A case has been registered by it under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indian Arms Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
Just two days before the first phase of polling in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP MLA and four policemen were killed in a powerful IED blast triggered by the Naxals at Dantewada on April 9.
“The case is being investigated by us, we have already accomplished much of it, and the process now is in an advanced stage. So the state home department has written to the Centre to reconsider the decision to ask the NIA to initiate a probe into it”, Chhattisgarh Director General of Police D M Awasthi said.
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government is waiting for the NIA probe report on the Jhiram attack.
The National Investigation Agency has not responded to the request sent by the state in January this year to share its report on the Maoist attack on a Congress convoy at Jhiram in 2013.