Thirteen years after the deadly 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, a special NIA court in Jagdalpur has convicted all 10 accused in the case. The court will pronounce the sentence on September 16. The attack, one of the most devastating strikes on political leaders in Chhattisgarh, took place on May 25, 2013, in Jhiram Valley in Bastar. Maoists ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders returning from the party’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ ahead of the 2013 Assembly elections, killing 29 people, including several senior Congress leaders.
Among those killed were then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla. Different reports have cited death tolls ranging from 29 to 32, depending on victims who later succumbed to their injuries.
The case was initially registered by Bastar Police before being handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) days after the attack. The transfer followed allegations by the Congress that security lapses by the state government and police had contributed to the tragedy.
The NIA filed its chargesheet before the special court in Jagdalpur in September 2014. During its investigation, the agency examined 101 witnesses and submitted supporting documents. In 2023, the NIA also issued a public advertisement seeking further information related to the case.
Over the years, the Jhiram Valley case has been subject to multiple investigations and inquiries. Two judicial commissions were constituted to examine the attack, while the NIA and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) conducted separate investigations at different levels.
The case also reached the Supreme Court. In 2020, the apex court dismissed a plea filed by the Chhattisgarh government challenging a judicial commission’s decision not to examine additional witnesses.
The verdict carries considerable political significance in Chhattisgarh, where the Congress and BJP have repeatedly traded allegations over the investigation and the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has alleged that the NIA is hiding facts related to the Jhiram incident and preventing the state government from conducting its own probe. He has also accused the previous BJP government of failing to provide adequate security, saying that this led to the attack in which “our leaders got martyred”.
Responding to Baghel’s allegations, former BJP national vice-president Raman Singh accused him of using the issue for political purposes. Singh alleged that Baghel neither cared about the report nor the action taken and “wants to do politics over this issue”.
With all 10 accused now convicted, the court is scheduled to pronounce their sentences on September 16, marking a major development in a case that has remained both legally and politically significant for more than a decade.
