The Centre has directed the Chhattisgarh Police at hand over the investigation of 17 instances linked to Left Wing Extremism to the NIA. The instances comprise killings of safety personnel, moreover these of civilians.
In January, Union Residence Minister Amit Shah had chaired a evaluation assembly on Left Wing Extremism with stakeholders in Raipur the place he had given a name to finish the Left Wing Extremism within the subsequent three years. A supply mentioned that the NIA final yr took motion in opposition to the Popular Front of India (PFI) for its alleged involvement in terror actions.
“For the previous a few years, a number of anti-Maoist operations of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been occurring in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and a number of the distant areas of Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. However the Centre needed to widen the online of investigation and after the state authorities modified, it requested for switch of the 17 instances to the NIA,” the supply mentioned.
These 17 Maoist-related instances are from Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur of the Bastar area and two bordering districts — Mohala Manpur and Gariaband. All of the instances have been registered in 2023 and 2024.
Of the 17 instances, eight are of homicide, together with two BJP employees — Birjhu Taram and Ratan Dubey. Three instances contain homicide of 5 civilians, killed by the Maoists on suspicion of them to be police informers. Amongst them was 27-year-old former Maoist Kishan Kursam alias Chotu, who was killed in December final yr, months after he surrendered.
Three instances contain killing of safety personnel, together with that of an ITBP jawan killed in an IED blast in Gariaband on November 17, and three CoBRA jawans killed in Tekulagudem in January this yr.
Final month, the BJP-ruled state authorities constituted a State Investigation Company (SIA) for tackling Naxalism and can help the NIA in a few of these instances. “The SIA will act because the nodal company of the state for coordination with the NIA. For this, a complete of 74 new posts, together with certainly one of Superintendent of Police, have been created,” an official mentioned.
In line with an official, solely seven instances have been transferred by the Chhattisgarh Police to the NIA since 2019.