‘We will not interfere’: SC on Chhattisgarh Police’s decision to register FIR over ‘larger conspiracy’ in 2013 Naxal attack

Appearing for the central probe agency, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju said that the main case was a probe by the NIA and therefore the alleged conspiracy angle should also be investigated by it and not by a new agency.

He submitted that the NIA had moved the trial court seeking transfer of the case to it but the plea was dismissed. This was later upheld by the Chhattisgarh High Court.

Pointing out that the trial in the case was on, the ASG said that there were Supreme Court judgments that said that connected cases should be probed by the same agency.

Senior Advocate ANS Nadkarni, who appeared for the state government, however, contended that the offence was a standalone instance and there were rulings that a separate FIR could be filed regarding the offence.

He said that the NIA had not probed the conspiracy angle and the state had then asked the Centre to initiate a CBI probe into it which too did not happen.

It was then that a fresh FIR was registered in 2020 following a complaint by Jitendra Mudaliar, the son of a Congress leader who lost his life in the incident.