THE POLICE VERSUS THE NIA

THE CONGRESS GOVERNMENT CLAIMS THE NIA PROBE OVERLOOKED THE CONSPIRACY ANGLE

- Rahul Noronha

Perhaps the ghost of the Jheeram Ghati massacre will be finally laid to rest. A decade after the deadly political slaughter took place on May 25, 2013, and following a protracted legal battle, the Supreme Court on November 21 issued an order granting the Chhattisgarh police autonomy to investigate it. In doing so it overruled the opposition of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which had been probing the case, to the involvement of the state police in the investigation. The Bhupesh Baghel government had long asserted that the NIA probe had overlooked the conspiracy angle in the case, and the state police therefore be allowed to investigate the incident.

On that fateful day 10 years back, heavily armed Maoists had ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in the Jheeram Ghati area of Jagdalpur district, killing more than 30 people, including top Congress leaders Vidya Charan Shukla, then state Congress president Nand Kumar Patel, former MP Mahendra Karma and former MLA Uday Mudaliyar. The leaders were returning from Sukma, where they had participated in a programme organised as part of the party's parivartan yatra. The state was to go to the polls later the same year.

The verdict has sparked off a wave of political reactions from both the BJP and Congress. BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh said his party would promptly get the matter investigated once it came to power. "The person who kept saying he has evidence of the conspiracy in his pocket did not produce it before the NIA that has been investigating the matter for the past five years," said Singh, blaming CM Baghel for not coming up with proof to back his claims.