SC rejects to entertain Chhattisgarh’s plea in 2013 Jheeram Ghati naxal attack
The Supreme Court rejected the plea filed by the state of Chhattisgarh against the order of the Chhattisgarh High Court, directing the Special Judicial Commission of Inquiry to examine additional witnesses in the 2013 Jheeram Valley Naxal attack. 29 people were killed in this attack.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah dismissed the petition after considering the plea of senior advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the state.
Dr. Singhvi submitted that additional references were made, but nothing was done by the Commission for seven months and additional witnesses were not examined.
In October last year, two witnesses were examined, but they did not investigate six witnesses, which was sought by the officer in charge of the state. The director of the Forest Warfare Training School was not investigated.
The bench noted that the Commission had already stopped proceedings and only needed to file its report. In light of the above, the Court refused to hear the appeal.
On 25 May 2013, Naxal attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jheeram Valley in Darbha region of Bastar district, killing 29 people, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former opposition leader Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla.
On May 28, 2013, the BJP government in the state constituted a special judicial inquiry commission headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and directed him to submit a report in three months, the circumstances that led to the attack and other related Matters came to light. The tenure of the Commission was extended from time to time by the Government.
The appeal filed by advocate Sumer Sodhi said that on January 29, the High Court bench in Bilaspur refused to interfere with the order of a single judge passed on December 12, 2019, who dismissed the petition for investigation of additional witnesses.
By Priya Kumari
