RAIPUR: In a setback to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Chhattisgarh high court on Wednesday dismissed the probe agency's appeal against the fresh FIR registered by the state police into the deadly 2013 Jhiram Maoist ambush that eliminated a chunk of the state Congress party's top leadership.
The state police had registered a new case in May 2020 into the incident on charges of Sections 302 (murder) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC based on the compliant lodged by Jitendra Mudilyar, son of Uday Mudliyar, a senior Congress leader who was among those killed in the Maoist ambush at Jhiram in Bastar.
A division bench of Justice R C Samant and Justice A S Chandel rejected the petition of the NIA that filed an appeal against the special session trial court (Jagdalpur) and Chhattisgarh's probe, giving the state police liberty to investigate the matter. The NIA had in 2020 filed an application before the special court in Jagdalpur to take over the probe but it was rejected.
Sunil Otwani, additional advocate general, appeared before the court on behalf of the Chhattisgarh government.
The audacious Maoist attack at Jhiram valley in Bastar killed the frontline Congress leadership during the parivartan yatra on May 25 in the election year of 2013.
The Chhattisgarh government and the Centre were at loggerheads after the state police had registered a fresh FIR and the ruling Congress government declared that a special investigation team (SIT) will take over the new case to probe the conspiracy angle.
The Congress after coming to power in Chhattisgarh in December 2018 constituted a SIT to investigate the Jhiram incident and sought the final report of the case from the NIA to look into the conspiracy angle but the latter didn't share it then ostensibly on the ground that the probe remained underway.
Later Jitendra Mudilyar lodged an FIR at Darbha following which the NIA filed an application seeking to take over the probe into the new case.