New Delhi: Setting aside the Bhupesh Baghel government’s plea, the Chhattisgarh high court has asked the state government to hand over the probe and reports of inquiry conducted so far into the killing of Bheema Mandavi, a BJP MLA, to the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
Mandavi, along with four policemen, was killed in an IED blast reportedly triggered by Maoist rebels at Dantewada on April 9, just two days before the first phase of polling in the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency.
On May 16, the BJP government at the Centre passed an order asking the NIA to take over the probe. This came after the slain MLA’s wife said she had no confidence in a state government probe.
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A day later, on May 17, the national agency filed an FIR at the NIA police station in New Delhi. Though the state government had ordered a judicial probe into the killing, the state BJP, alleging political conspiracy, had also demanded a CBI inquiry.
Thereafter, the Congress government in the state wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs, twice, to review its decision, stating that the state police had already begun its investigations and that the probe was in an advanced stage.
However, the NIA chose to go to the high court seeking its intervention in the matter. A one-judge bench of Justice R.C. Samant directed the state government to hand over the probe and inquiry files to the NIA. However, the state filed a review petition at the court.
On November 20, Chief Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon and Justice P.P. Sahu upheld the earlier decision of the court.
Media reports from Raipur quoting the advocate for NIA, Kishore Bhaduri, said that the state government had argued that the NIA taking over when the police had nearly completed the investigations might show the ‘incapability’ of the state forces. “The state couldn’t give a satisfactory reply when the court asked who then is the accused if the investigation is nearly completed,” he said.