Bilaspur: The Bilaspur High Court on Wednesday stayed the functioning of the new committee constituted until the next hearing. The committee was established by the state administration to probe the Jhiram valley incident in which Congress leaders were killed by Naxals. The stay came after the Leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Dharamlal Kaushik had filed a writ petition in the High Court of Chhattisgarh, challenging State Government’s decision to reconstitute new Jhiram Ghati Inquiry Commission to investigate the Jhiram Ghati massacre.
Naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders during the party’s ‘parivartan rally’ in Jhiram Valley in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh on May 25, 2013, killing 29, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister Vidyacharan Shukla.
The Congress government in the state had, in January 2019, set up a 10-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Jhiram valley incident.