RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said that the decision on setting up a new judicial commission to probe the May 2013 Jhiram valley naxal attack will be taken soon.
His statement came after an earlier judicial commission submitted its report to Governor Anusuiya Uikey, causing controversy as the ruling Congress said it should have been submitted to the state government.
Asked by reporters here about the state Congress' demand for a new judicial commission, Baghel said, "The tenure of the judicial commission (constituted in 2013) was over but it said the report was yet to be completed. So definitely a decision will be taken after considering it and I think it will be decided very soon."
The chief minister had on Monday wondered why the report was submitted suddenly, pointing out that only in September the commission had sought extension of term, and decision on it was pending.
Maoists attacked a convoy of Congress leaders during the party's `Parivartan Rally' in the Jhiram valley in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh on May 25, 2013, killing 29 people including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister V C Shukla.
The commission, headed by former Chhattisgarh High Court judge Prashant Kumar Mishra, was constituted on May 28, 2013, by the then BJP government to inquire into the deadly attack.
Eight years later, the Jhiram Ghati Inquiry Commission's secretary and registrar (judicial) of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Santosh Kumar Tiwari, handed over the report to the governor on November 6.
Baghel on Monday had termed the submission of the report to the governor as being against established practice.
The Congress government in the state had, in January 2019, set up a ten-member Special Investigation Team to probe the Jhiram valley incident.