In a major blow to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Chhattisgarh High Court on Wednesday dismissed its appeal challenging fresh FIR into the Jheeram Valley incident registered by the Bastar Police in connection with the massacre which killed 29 people including top brass of state Congress.
Additional Advocate General, Sunil Otwani, told The Pioneer that an order in this regard was passed by division bench of Justice R C S Samant and Justice Arvind Singh Chandel.
“With the order, decks are now cleared for the Chhattisgarh police to investigate into the matter afresh, including the conspiracy angle”, he said.
On May 25, 2013, Naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jheeram valley in Darbha area of Bastar district, killing 29 people, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister Vidyacharan Shukla.
The Bastar police had then registered an FIR at Darbha police station. Subsequently, the NIA took over the probe.
On May 26, 2019 after Congress formed government in Chhattisgarh, another FIR was registered under sections 302 (Punishment for murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Darbha police station in which complainant Jitendra Mudliyar, a Congress leader, sought to probe the conspiracy angle into the attack.
Mudliyar is the son of Congress leader Uday Mudliyar who was also killed in the Jheeram attack.
Earlier, a special court at Jagdalpur (Bastar) rejected the NIA's plea seeking that Bastar Police hand it over all the documents pertaining to the second FIR.
The NIA then approached the HC contending that the 2013 FIR was investigated and a charge-sheet was filed.
There can be no second FIR and no fresh investigation in respect of the same cognizable offence or same occurrence giving rise to one or more cognizable offences as per the law, it said. A stay order was then proved by the High Court in this matter.
Meanwhile, the High Court of Chhattisgarh has now dismissed the plea of NIA and had cleared the way for state police to investigate into the matter including that of the conspiracy angle.