Jheeram Ghati Naxal Attack case: Supreme Court dismisses Chattisgarh government plea seeking examination of additional witnesses

The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea filed by the Chhattisgarh government seeking examination of additional witnesses in the Jheeram Ghati Naxal attack case of 2013..The state government had earlier approached the Chhattisgarh High Court seeking a direction to the judicial commission set up to probe the 2013 attack, to examine the additional witnesses in the case. However, the High Court had dismissed the same, prompting the State to approach the Supreme Court.The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah has now dismissed the appeal against the order of High Court..Today, Justice Bhushan categorically stated that the judicial commission had made it clear that it would not accept more witness statements after October 2019..Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Chhattisgarh government, insisted that the commission can examine five more witnesses.."This is such an important incident. Why can't they examine five witnesses? This is not something cast in stone," argued Singhvi..The Court noted that when the commission invited those who wanted to be examined to file affidavits, no one did so. "How can they be examined now?," the Bench asked..While dismissing the appeal, the Court observed,"You wanted the expert witness to be examined, but commission did not agree. You may have extended the commission's tenure but it has closed the proceedings.".On May 25, 2013, naxals had attacked a convoy of Congress leaders in Jheeram valley, located in the state's Bastar district. 29 people were killed in the attack, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma, and former Union Minister Vidyacharan Shukla..The Bench was earlier told by Singhvi that the commission had rejected the request to record the testimony of six crucial witnesses, and had closed the probe..Singhvi had informed the Court that the commission had also refused to summon BK Ponwar, Director of the Jungle Warfare Training School at Kanker, for recording his evidence as an expert."No one from the list of six witnesses have been examined by the commission," Singhvi said, adding that the additional terms of reference of the commission were issued and accepted in September 2019..Singhvi had further enquired as to. what happened to these additional terms of reference, as the examination of old witnesses continued without the examination of the additional witnesses.