RAIPUR: A day after senior Maoist cadre Chaitu alias Giraddi Pavanand Reddy (63), said to be the mastermind of the 2013 Jheeram Ghati massacre by Naxals in Bastar in Chhattisgarh in which 28 Congress leaders were killed, surrendered, Congress on Saturday revived the demand for a probe into the conspiracy angle in the incident.
Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel took to social media platform X to demand a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Jheeram Ghati incident, saying that ‘(Now that Chaitu surrendered), can it be expected that NIA will interrogate the mastermind (of the Jheeram Ghati massacre). Let it be brought to light who conspired the killings and with what motive’.
Chaitu, who also had another Maoist name of Shyam Dada was a senior member of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), on Friday surrendered along with nine other Naxals at Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar.
He carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh.
As many as 32 people including 28 Congress leaders were killed when Maoists ambushed the Congress convoy at Jheeram Ghati under Darbha division in Bastar district on May 23, 2013.
The frontline leaders of the Congress in Chhattisgarh including PCC president Nand Kumar Patel, former minister Mahendra Karma and former Union minister V C Shukla were wiped out in the incident.
The attack on the Congress convoy had taken place barely six months before the November 2013 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh leading the Congress to suspect a political conspiracy in the incident.
The NIA which probed the incident has made no mention of political conspiracy in the investigation report, submitted a few years ago.
Congress has since been demanding a probe by the NIA to find out the alleged political conspiracy in the incident.
The surrender of Chaitu has thus revived the demand for a probe into the political conspiracy in the incident.