Jagdalpur/Raipur, September 5, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region has convicted 10 people in connection with the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack, one of the deadliest episodes of Left-wing extremist violence in the state.
The attack on May 25, 2013, claimed 29 lives and virtually wiped out a significant part of the Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh.
The court found all 10 surviving accused guilty after a prolonged trial. Eleven people had been charged in the case, but one of them died during the proceedings. The 10 convicts, lodged at Jagdalpur Central Jail, were brought to the court for the final arguments.
The date for the verdict had been fixed twice after arguments concluded — first for August 31 and later for September 5 — before the court delivered its findings.
The attack took place on the afternoon of May 25, when a convoy of Congress leaders and workers was returning from a ‘Parivartan Rally’ in Sukma. Around 200 people were travelling in 25 vehicles along the national highway under Darbha police station limits in Bastar when Maoists blocked the road by felling trees.
More than 200 Maoists then opened fire on the convoy.
Among those killed were then Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh Patel, former Leader of the Opposition Mahendra Karma, former Union Minister Vidya Charan Shukla and former MLA Uday Mudliyar. Several civilians and security personnel were also killed.
Karma, who was widely regarded as the initiator of the anti-Maoist Salwa Judum movement, was specifically targeted. Maoists allegedly identified him during a systematic checking of the vehicles that began around 5.30 p.m. and shot him more than 100 times.
The Central government handed over the investigation to the NIA on May 27, 2013. The agency filed its first chargesheet before the special court on September 24, 2014, naming 39 accused. A supplementary chargesheet filed on September 28, 2015, added 88 more names.
The trial that has now concluded involved 11 accused. The NIA filed a nearly 1,000-page chargesheet in 2015 against them, with 10 surviving accused remaining in custody at Jagdalpur Central Jail.
The prosecution examined 101 witnesses, while the defence did not produce any witness.
After the Congress returned to power in Chhattisgarh in 2018, then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-examine aspects of the case. The High Court subsequently stayed the SIT investigation, while proceedings continued before the NIA special court.
The Jhiram Valley attack took place ahead of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, when the Congress was seeking to challenge the then BJP government led by Chief Minister Raman Singh.
The targeting of senior Congress leaders, particularly Karma because of his association with Salwa Judum, highlighted the Maoists’ hostility towards political figures they viewed as a threat to their influence in Bastar.
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