NIA court order details three-month planning behind 2013 Jhiram Ghati ambush
The NIA court order in the Jhiram Ghati case records how the May 25, 2013 ambush on the Congress Parivartan Yatra was planned over three months, with recce, a rehearsal and handpicked cadre.
The ambush that killed 27 people and all but wiped out the Chhattisgarh Congress leadership on May 25, 2013, was the product of roughly three months of preparation, according to the order of the National Investigation Agency court that sentenced 10 convicted Maoists to death this Wednesday. The court classified the case among the "rarest of the rare".
According to the order, the attack was planned at a meeting of the Maoists' South Regional Unified Command held between February 16 and 25, 2013. Leaders surveyed the Sukma-Jagdalpur national highway to pick Jhiram Valley as the site. A special team drawn from various military units and local cadres was handpicked, and Barse Sukka alias Deva, then a member of the Darbha Divisional Committee and now a surrendered Maoist, was given charge of executing the attack.
About 50 kg of rice was collected for a temporary camp to feed those taking part, and a week before the attack a rehearsal was held in a forest near Ekkam-Chakpal. On the nights of May 22 and 23, an armed group of around 100 Maoists, along with Jan Militia members from the Kanger Valley area, set up temporary command centres on both sides of the road. The cadres carried AK-series rifles, SLRs, LMGs, .303 rifles, grenades and country-made firearms.
On the day of the attack, the Congress's Parivartan Yatra had set out from Sukma towards Jagdalpur. Near Jhiram Ghati, with a hill on one side and a ditch on the other, the road was blocked using roughly 8-9 kg of explosives, including special-category material such as PETN and TNT, and by felling trees. Firing came from a position atop the hill, and victims were shot at close range. About 206 bullets were fired into the vehicles.
The order records the sequence that led to the killing of Congress leader Mahendra Karma, the founder of the banned Salwa Judum and believed to be the prime target. Investigators found 69 injuries on his body. Evidence from the applicant and the injured showed that the Maoists were searching for Salwa Judum leaders Mahendra Karma and Nand Kumar Patel and their relatives. Even after Karma identified himself and pleaded that innocent people not be killed, he was dragged to a hillside, shot at close range and had stones thrown at his face; the Maoists celebrated over his body, and he bore knife injuries after death, as confirmed by medical witnesses.
The court held that the recce, the rehearsal and the manner of the assault made clear the incident was premeditated and deliberate.