The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against the Chhattisgarh Police’s separate probe into a first information report alleging larger conspiracy in the 2013 Jheeram Ghati Maoist attack that killed 29 people, including some leaders of the state Congress unit.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, found no reason to differ from the views taken by the subordinate courts that had earlier rejected the federal agency’s plea that no separate probe by the state police was required in the matter.

“Sorry, we would not like to interfere. Dismissed,” the bench, which also included justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, told additional solicitor general SV Raju, who was appearing for the NIA.

READ | Jheeram Ghati attack: Chhattisgarh HC stays investigation into fresh FIR by state police

Raju, on his part, had pressed that the larger conspiracy angle into the incident should also be investigated by the NIA as the main FIR of the case is investigated by the same agency. According to the ASG, the proper course of action for a court was to issue a direction to the NIA for further investigation instead of a separate probe by the state police.

He said when the Chhattisgarh police refused to hand over the records to the NIA, the agency moved the trial court, which rejected the plea in 2020. “Thereafter, the high court also dismissed the plea against the trial court order on March 2, 2022,” Raju added.

Opposing the NIA’s contention, senior advocate ANS Nadkarni and advocate Sumeer Sodhi, appearing for the Chhattisgarh government, said the state had initially requested the NIA to investigate the larger conspiracy angle of the incident but they refused.

“The state government then requested the Centre to entrust the probe of a larger conspiracy to the CBI as NIA had refused to probe. The Centre refused to hand over the probe to the CBI. Then what could the state government do? It asked the police to register the FIR and investigate the larger conspiracy angle,” Nadkarni said.

The bench also heard advocate Sudiep Srivastava, the counsel for the complainant Jitendra Mudaliar, on whose complaint the FIR was lodged.

Mudaliar, a Congress leader, had in May 2020 lodged the FIR Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at Darbha police station, demanding a probe into the larger conspiracy angle in the incident. Mudaliar is the son of Congress leader Uday Mudaliar, who was also killed in the Jheeram valley attack.

Applauding the court order, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, said it is like opening the door of justice for Chhattisgarh. “The Jheeram incident was the biggest political massacre in the world’s democracy wherein we lost 32 people including senior Congress leaders,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Noting that the case was investigated by the NIA and a commission, but no one looked into the “larger political conspiracy” behind the incident, the CM said: “When Chhattisgarh Police started the investigation, NIA approached the court to disrupt it. Today the path has been cleared. Now Chhattisgarh Police will investigate this. Who had hatched what conspiracy with whom? Everything will become clear. Once again a tribute to the martyrs of Jheeram.”

On May 25, 2013, Maoists attacked a convoy of Congress leaders at Jheeram valley in Darbha area of Bastar district, killing 29 people, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister Vidyacharan Shukla. The deadly ambush by heavily armed Maoists had taken place when political campaigning for the assembly elections was on, and Congress leaders were returning after taking part in a “Parivartan rally” in Bastar district.

The Bastar police then lodged an FIR into the incident at Darbha police station and the NIA subsequently took over the probe into it. After completing its investigation, the NIA had filed the chargesheet, in which the trial commenced.

After Mudaliar got a separate FIR lodged into the aspect of larger conspiracy, the NIA filed an application in the trial court in Jagdalpur, seeking to restrain the state police from proceeding in the investigation into the fresh FIR. The agency sought a direction for the state police to hand it over all documents pertaining to the second FIR.

However, the special court rejected the NIA’s application in 2020 following which the agency approached the high court, which also rejected its plea last year. The NIA subsequently approached the Supreme Court.