Former Chhattisgarh HC judge Satish K Agnihotri to head judicial commission on Jhiram valley attack

The state government nominated Justice Agnihotri as the chairperson and Justice G Minhajuddin as the member of the panel amid a controversy over the recent submission of report by an earlier judicial commission to Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey.

Raipur:Former Chhattisgarh High Court judge Satish K Agnihotri will head a judicial commission reconstituted to probe the Jhiram valley massacre of 2013, in which 29 people including top state Congress leaders were killed by Maoists, officials said on Thursday.

The state government nominated Justice Agnihotri as the chairperson and Justice G Minhajuddin as the member of the panel amid a controversy over the recent submission of report by an earlier judicial commission to Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikey.

Justice Minhajuddin also served as a judge in the Chhattisgarh High Court.

The Commission will complete its probe within six months and submit its findings to the state government, according to an order issued by the General Administration Department of Chhattisgarh.

The government has expanded the ambit of the Commission to ascertain whether the victims were provided proper health care facilities after the incident and whether proper steps were taken to ensure recurrence of such incidents, among others, the order said.

The secretary of the earlier Commission had on September 23, 2021 informed the state government that the probe has not been completed and sought that further time be granted, according to the order, adding that the tenure of the panel completed on September 30.

Chhattisgarh High Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, who was the chairman of the Commission, has been transferred and taken over as the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court, the order said, adding “that is why the state government has decided to appoint two new members in the inquiry panel".

The Commission headed by Justice Mishra was constituted on May 28, 2013 by the then BJP government to inquire into the deadly attack.

Eight years later, the Jhiram Ghati Inquiry Commission's secretary and registrar (judicial) of the Chhattisgarh High Court, Santosh Kumar Tiwari, handed over the report to the Governor on November 6.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday asked as to why the report was submitted to the Governor as against the established practice of giving it to the state government.

The Congress government in the state had, in January 2019, set up a 10-member Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.

Maoists had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders during the party's 'Parivartan Rally' in the Jhiram valley in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh on May 25, 2013, killing 29 people, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former Union minister V C Shukla.

PTI