2013 Jheeram Ghati naxal attack: Supreme Court dismisses Chhattisgarh government's plea

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea by the Chhattisgarh government against a refusal by the Special Judicial Inquiry Commission to examine additional witnesses in its inquiry into the 2013 Jheeram Ghati incident, in which top leaders of state Congress party were killed in a Maoist attack.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah declined to entertain the plea by the Congress government, while noting that five additional witnesses who sought to depose, did not file affidavits before the deadline of September 30, 2019.

The Bhupesh Baghel government, which came into power in December 2018, gave additional terms of reference to the Commission. It challenged the High Court's judgement of January 29, 2020, dismissing the petition against the Commission's decision.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the state government, submitted that the Commission did not allow five additional witnesses to record their statements.

The bench, however, pointed out to the Commission's direction for those who wanted to be examined to file affidavits and noted that no one did it. How can they be examined now, it asked, rejecting the plea.

The state government was aggrieved by the refusal of the Commission headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra to summon Director, Jungle Warfare Training School, Kanker to record his statement and close the proceedings.

A deadly ambush on May 25, 2013, during Assembly election campaign had killed 29 people, including then-state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma, and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla.