After the NIA court verdict in the Jhiram Valley massacre case, tribal members in Chhattisgarh have announced that they will appeal the verdict in a Higher Court. The officials and the members of affected families from about six-seven districts of the Bastar division participated in a meeting in Parpa, Jagdalpur.
Those who attended the meeting said that the namesakes in the case had nothing to do with the Jhiram Valley incident and were “misleadingly dragged into the case.” The NIA court has decided 10 convicts death sentence for the case.
Tribal representatives said, it is not enough to attend meetings in villages, they are involved in Naxal movement. People in rural regions could attend a community meeting for different reasons but it does not constitute engagement in an extremist organization, they said.
The community has decided to challenge the verdict in court. The villages will reportedly be collecting ₹20 from every family to help the legal battle, reckoning the decision from the meeting. The group will first discuss the case with the High Court, and if no succour comes to it, they will take up the case with the Supreme Court.
The community was not happy with the verdict given by the NIA court and Prakash Thakur, the divisional president of Sarv Adivasi Samaj, said so. He said that families of those affected had complained at the meeting that some of them who were convicted were not on the scene of the attack.
Also, vowing to bring to an end to the “impunity enjoyed by the offenders,” district president Ganga Nag said that those who faced punishment were innocent.
Jhiram Valley massacre is one of the important attacks made by Naxals in Chhattisgarh. But this opposition to the verdict may now prompt the legal battle to bring the case to another level – the tribal community could appeal the verdict before the High Court.