Sukma Maoist attack: Case may be handed over to NIA for investigation, says Home Ministry official

New Delhi: The Centre is likely to hand over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) the probe into the killing of 25 CRPF personnel in Sukma in Chhattisgarh by the Maoists. A senior Home Ministry functionary said it was a fit case to be handed over to the NIA as so many security personnel were killed in a single incident.

“We are contemplating handing over the probe into the Sukma incident to the NIA,” the functionary said. Twenty-five CRPF personnel were killed and seven wounded in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on 24 April, in the deadliest ambush by Maoists of security forces this year. The NIA is mandated to probe terror attacks anywhere in the country. The government considers the CPI (Maoists), which perpetrated the violence, as a terrorist organisation.

The deadly Maoist ambush in which 25 CPRF personnel were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district was planned and executed by a local Maoist commander. The Maoist commander was reportedly camping in the area for the last few days, said an official. The incident took place in the same base region of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist where 75 CRPF personnel and one state policeman were massacred in April 2010 in Tadmetla.

“We got regular inputs on 22 April that dreaded Maoist commander Situ was camping at Tadmetla village, around 7-8 kms from Burkapal where the ambush took place,” a senior police official involved in anti-Naxal operations said.