Chhattisgarh govt forms SIT to probe 2013 Bastar Maoist attack

RAIPUR: The newly-elected Chhattisgarh government has constituted a ten-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by inspector general of police (Bastar range) Vivekananda Sinha, to probe the Maoist attack that had eliminated 29 people including frontline Congress leaders in Jhiram Ghati in May 2013.
Immediately after the swearing-in, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel had announced his government’s decision to set up an SIT to probe the conspiracy and other angles related to the deadly Maoist attack in Bastar, as the Congress had always maintained that the probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies had failed to get into the bottom of the incident.
Government on Wednesday issued orders constituting the Special Investigation Team comprising ten senior officers including IG Vivekananda Sinha as SIT in-charge, DIG Naxal operations P Sundarraj, commandant, security battalion ML Kotwani, deputy commandant (third battalion) Gayatri Singh, Mahasamund deputy superintendent of police Rajiv Sharma, inspector Ashish Shukla, inspector Premlal Sahu, retired DSP Narendra Sharma, retired deputy director prosecution NN Chaturvedi, legal science expert DR MK Verma.
Six months ahead of the 2013 assembly elections, Maoists had unleashed a deadly attack on a Congress convoy at Jhiram Ghati in Bastar district, killing the then PCC chief Nandkumar Patel, his elder son Dinesh, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma, former Union minister VC Shukla, former MLA Uday Mudaliyar and 24 others.
The then BJP government and the Centre had agreed for an NIA probe while a judicial inquiry was also ordered into the incident. However, the then opposition Congress pressed for a fresh inquiry into the alleged conspiracy angle forcing the BJP government to announce on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha that the investigation would be handed over to the CBI. However, the Central agency didn’t take up the probe.
Congress in its election manifesto had also maintained that it would order a probe to unearth the conspiracy angle of the Bastar massacre. As promised, Congress government set up an SIT to investigate this aspect.