The special NIA court in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on Wednesday handing down death penalty to all 10 convicts in the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack case represents gross abuse of human rights and the evolution and aggrandization of neo-fascism within the judicial structure-
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jagdalpur city in Bastar district on Wednesday convicted 10 Maoists and awarded them death on charges of criminal conspiracy and murder for their alleged involvement in the Jhiram Ghati attack.
In the 2013 attack, armed cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) had encircled and executed an attack on a Congress convoy, killing at least 27 people and almost wiping out the state party leadership. As many as 38 people had suffered injuries.
NIA judge Ajay Singh Rajput convicted the accused under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The death sentence was awarded for criminal conspiracy (120 B) and murder (section 302) of the IPC.
The 10 who have been convicted are Pramila Modiyam, Chaitu Lekam alias Munna, Sumita alias Punem Modiyam, Mukka Mandvi, Kosa Kavasi alias Kosaram, Aayata Markam, Madkami Deva, Joga Madkami, Banjami Sanna alias Chamru and Mahadev Nag. An 11th accused died during trial while another 28, named in the chargesheet as accused, have been listed as wanted.
Backdrop of Action
It must also be taken into account the backdrop in which the Maoist action was executed on the Congress leader, in 2013. For a considerable period Mahendra Karma, who was instrumental in founding the banned anti-Maoist militia Salwa Judum, sponsored gruesome attacks on unarmed tribals, shattering all aspirations for a better livelihood. Whether one agrees or abides with their political line or not is a different question but, the offensive represented striking injustice in it’s very belly and put a check to and retaliated the brutal oppression unleashed. A Punjabi revolutionary journal ’Surkh Rekha’ even if belonging to another political trends, endorsed it’s significance.
Incarceration
The special NIA court in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on Wednesday handing down death penalty to all 10 convicts in the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack case, in which 27 people including senior Congress leaders, were killed, represents gross abuse of justice. The ten persons sentenced to death have consistently testified their innocence, and their families have throughout verified d that they were falsely implicated in the Jhiram Valley case. They are Adivasi villagers from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds who have already languished approximately thirteen years in incarceration. The judgement represents the evolution and aggrandization of neo-fascism within the judicial structure.
Significantly, even the prosecution does not allege that these ten persons engineered the Jhiram Valley attack. The prosecution case itself blames the planning and direction of the attack to senior Maoist leaders, none of whom were ever brought to trial in the present proceedings. The persons who now face execution are not those whom the prosecution itself holds responsible for orchestrating the attack. The residents of such areas are routinely trapped in a crossfire between armed actors on multiple sides Thirteen years of incarceration before sentence is an extraordinary desecration of liberty, with consequences not only for the prisoners but for their families and communities.
Bela Bhatia said locating the real culprits is the hardest thing in mass and overnight attacks like the Jerum incident. There are no eyewitnesses (Eye-witnesses) who witnessed anyone firing directly or holding weapons in their hands regarding the 10 people convicted in this case. Police arrested the people of nearby villages on the basis of suspicions only. In several such investigations in Buster, 99% of the tribes are rendered innocent after years of imprisonment in Buster. (Bela Bhatia is a prominent human rights advocate, researcher and author based in Chhattisgarh, India. She has been working as an advocate in Buster division district courts in south Chhattisgarh, especially fighting for the rights of tribals and backward communities)
Her analysis is that among those arrested by the police in 2014 there are more innocent tribes. For example, a man who worked as the sarpanch of Chikpal village under Kate Kalyan from 2005 to 2010, a young man who got married in a different village during the incident, and a woman who worked for a short time in childhood in 'Chetana Natya Manch' (Cultural Department) and came out in 2010 itself have been caught in this case.
Credibility of Death Penalty
The death penalty is opposed to the Constitutional principles of Rule of Law and is not the answer to this or any crime. The imposition of capital punishment in this case is a testament to unequal access to justice, individual culpability, and the disproportionate impact of the harshest punishments awarded to the poorest and most marginalised sections of society. Noteworthy that India remains amongst a select band of countries worldwide that still has death penalty in its lawbooks and practices it – as of 2025, 113 countries across the world have abolished capital punishment. It is a merciless and barbaric form of punishment and accentuates crime. It violates the right to life and dignity, and decades of research show that it accentuates crime. The relationship between poverty, and exposure to the harshest punishments cannot be ignored No serious discussion of capital punishment in India can exclude the inter relationship between poverty and capital punishment. The harshest punishment falls on those at the margins, with the alleged architects often left scot free and never brought to trial.
The court has imposed death penalty (execution) under 7 severe sections along with jail sentences under various sections. However, human rights activist, Bela Bhatia was critical of the trial judge's statement in the ruling that the death penalty is 'not enforced until the High Court confirms', and the court’s resorting to the easy route by dumping its responsibility to the High Court in the case of political pressure. In her view it is a grave injustice to impose death penalty instead of apologizing and releasing innocents who have already served more than 13 years in prison. There are movements taking place worldwide against legal death penalties, and that it is improper or inhuman to impose death penalty in mass cases without clear evidence. (Bela Bhatia is a prominent human rights advocate, researcher and author based in Chhattisgarh, India. She has been working as an advocate in Buster division district courts in south Chhattisgarh, especially fighting for the rights of tribals and backward communities)
No Process set up to review cases prisoners wrongly framed
These death sentences must also be viewed in the backdrop of the present circumstances prevailing in Bastar. The State Government has repeatedly promised peace, dialogue, surrender and rehabilitation as part of its approach to resolving the decades-long conflict. For decades, the prisons of Bastar have stacked large numbers of Adivasi men and women arrested in alleged Maoist cases. Families and civil liberties groups have repeatedly protested false implication, and prolonged incarceration to secure eventual acquittal after years spent in prison. This contradiction has become more acute at a moment when the State claims that the armed conflict is on the verge of collapse. While surrender and rehabilitation are being readily offered to persons leaving the Maoist movement, there has been no compatible process to review the cases of Adivasis who have spent years in prison framed alleged Maoist cases, including those who maintain that they were never associated with the Maoist movement at all. Justice is antagonistic with vengeance. To secure a genuine transition towards peace it is imperative for rectify it’s the State to confront legacy of false arrests, prolonged undertrial incarceration and wrongful prosecutions, and build a credible and transparent mechanism for reviewing the cases of those who continue to languish in prison.-Harsh Thakor
