Publish Date: | Fri, 04 Mar 2022 08:05 AM (IST)
Raipur. The investigation of the Jhiram case is going on for the last nine years, but it could not reach any end and the victims kept feeling cheated. On Wednesday, the Chhattisgarh High Court ruled that the state police was free to investigate political conspiracy at its own level.
This investigation will be different from the chargesheet presented by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). After this decision of the High Court, it is expected that the points which the present Congress government of the state has been demanding for investigation, will be investigated and the truth will come out.
In fact, the case of Jhiram incident was entangled in the politics of Congress and BJP from the very beginning. On May 25, 2013, by attacking a Congress convoy in Jhiram Valley of Bastar, the Naxalites killed 32 people, including former Congress MPs, ministers, state Congress President, and the whole country was shaken. At that time there was a BJP government in the state. The BJP immediately handed over the matter to the NIA.
Three days later, a commission was also constituted under the chairmanship of Justice Prashant Mishra of the High Court. The NIA arrested nine people within a year and filed a charge sheet in the High Court in the name of 152 people, including 26 dreaded Naxalites.
The Congress was never satisfied with the NIA investigation. The Congress, which was in opposition then, said that the NIA did not investigate the political conspiracy. As soon as the Congress government was formed in 2018, there was talk of a fresh investigation into the Jhiram case. Meanwhile, in November last year, when the Justice Prashant Mishra Judicial Commission presented a 4,184-page report to the Governor, the Congress was the attacker.
The Congress government said that some more points should be investigated and formed a new commission under the chairmanship of Justice Satish Agnihotri. On May 26, 2019, Jitendra, son of late Congress MLA Uday Mudaliar, lodged an FIR at Darbha police station in Bastar, demanding a probe into the political conspiracy in the murder of his father.
The NIA objected to this FIR and said that a separate investigation cannot be conducted. The matter went to the High Court and now the court has said that the police can investigate the political conspiracy. Investigation is being done on the investigation on Jhiram case, but justice is incomplete.
First the BJP government got the investigation done, now the Congress government will get it done. If the matter of conspiracy comes to the fore, then the matter will again get entangled in politics. There should be no more politics in the investigation of this matter. Initiative should be taken to ensure that justice reaches the victims. The priority should be to bring the real culprits of Jhiram to the court of justice.
Posted By: Kadir Khan