Jeeram Ghati Naxal Attack Verdict Expected August 10 After 12-Year Trial
The final argument in the court in the case is scheduled to be held on August ten, government pleader Dinesh Panigrahi said.
Raipur: The 12-year-long trial in the case of the 2013 Jeeram Ghati Naxal attack, in which the frontline leaders of Chhattisgarh unit of Congress were wiped out, ongoing in the Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar, in the state, is set to end on August ten.
The final argument in the court in the case is scheduled to be held on August ten, government pleader Dinesh Panigrahi said.
The trial in the case had commenced after the NIA filed its initial chargesheet against the arrested accused on September 25,2014 and the ongoing proceedings have advanced through testimonies from 101 witnesses and deposition of relevant documents.
The initial charge sheet was filed against nine arrested accused persons.
On September 28, 2015, a supplementary charge sheet was filed against 30 accused persons.
The FIR re-registered by the NIA in the case on May 27, 2013 said that on May 25, 2013 at around 4.15 pm, members of the banned CPI (Maoist) attacked the convoy of the Parivartan Yatra of the Congress on National Highway 221 in the hilly areas of Jeeram Ghati, killing 27 persons including 10 police personnel.
Thirty-eight persons were injured in the incident.
One nine mm pistol with two magazines and 20 rounds, two AK 47 rifles along with 14 magazines and 455 rounds, ten hand grenades and communication sets were looted / lost during the attack, the FIR filed by the NIA said.
Prominent Congress leaders slain in the Naxal ambush included Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Nand Kumar Patel and his newly married son, former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, and former minister Mahendra Karma, the founder of the anti-Naxal civil vigilante force Salwa Judum.
The Naxal attack came six months before the November 2013 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh.