The Supreme Court of India recently dismissed an appeal by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging a second FIR registered by the Chhattisgarh Police. This FIR pertains to the 2013 Maoist attack on Congress leaders in Bastar, alleging a larger political conspiracy. The bench, comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, declined to interfere in the matter, effectively turning down the NIA’s request to transfer the investigation from the state police to the central agency.
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The NIA’s petition contested the Chhattisgarh High Court’s order dated March 2, 2022, which upheld a special NIA court’s decision not to quash the second FIR or transfer it to the NIA for further investigation. The second FIR, filed in 2020 based on a complaint by the son of a deceased Congress leader, suggested that the larger political conspiracy behind the incident had not been examined by the NIA in its initial probe.
Arguing for the NIA, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju pointed out that the 2013 incident, involving the killing of 28 people and injuring 33 by Naxalites, was already under investigation by the NIA. He argued that the allegation of a ‘larger conspiracy’ is a connected offense and should be investigated by the NIA under Section 8 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008. Raju highlighted that after the second FIR was lodged, the NIA had requested the local police to stop their investigation and hand over the documents to the NIA, as per Section 8 of the NIA Act.
However, the counsel for the complainant countered that the second FIR did not pertain to a “connected offense” but was based on “the deliberate lack of security,” an aspect not examined in the first FIR. He referred to a Supreme Court judgment that allowed for a second FIR in cases of a larger conspiracy.
Senior Advocate Atmaram Nadkarni, representing the State of Chhattisgarh, accused the NIA of stalling the investigation. He stated,
“The trial court rejects this application because it is not maintainable. The NIA could not have moved with this application. If Section 6 and 8 is already there, why did they move to trial court for transfer? You did not register an FIR. Because you didn’t move, the DG moved UOI for CBI investigation. CBI also doesn’t so we register an FIR and we do it.”
The Supreme Court’s decision to not interfere in the matter underscores the complexity of the case, which involves questions of national interest and the intricacies of investigating a politically sensitive incident. The 2013 Maoist attack, resulting in at least 27 deaths, has been a subject of controversy and debate, with the Chhattisgarh government asserting that the NIA had failed to investigate the political conspiracy angle and had closed the case. The state government had even requested a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into this aspect in 2016, indicating the ongoing challenges in fully unraveling the events surrounding the attack.
