NIA gets cracking, more hits feared

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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attends the last rites of slain party leader Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh

Declaring that the killings of top Congress leaders by Maoists in Chhattisgarh was an attack on “national security”, the Centre on Monday handed over the probe to the National investigation Agency, virtually equating the Naxal strike to a terrorist attack. The MHA has made it clear to the NIA brass that a “foolproof” case must be built with “concrete evidence” to ensure it doesn’t meet the fate of the 2010 Dantewada massacre probe, where all the 10 arrested accused were acquitted by a court for “lack of evidence” in March this year.
Spelling urgency to fix responsibility for glaring police lapses that led to 28 deaths, top Central officials led by Union home secretary R.K. Singh will visit Chhattisgarh on Tuesday for some blunt talking with top state officials. Chhattisgarh’s chief secretary and DGP will be asked to undertake a “tactical review” of the anti-Naxal operations and take urgent steps to improve policing, top sources said. The MHA doesn’t want to wait for the outcome of the judicial inquiry ordered by the state government, and may seek a departmental probe against Chhatti-sgarh police officers in charge of security plans for the Congress convoy that was ambushed by over 200 Maoists near Darba in Sukma district.
Amid speculation on how such a large gathering of armed Maoists went undetected by the state authorities, the government said Monday it was “intrigued” by the attack in which almost the entire Congress leadership in the state was wiped out. The sources added it would also probe why the convoy took a route that was known to be “risky”. An official said: “Darba is known as a popular Naxal den. Who suggested that the convoy should travel through it at a time when there was virtually no security cover available?” But he added: “It is too early to jump to any bigger conclusion, and there is going to be a judicial review.”
In Raipur, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh acknowledged on Monday that “security lapses” had led to the deaths of the Congress leaders, but rubbished charges that proper security was not provided to them. “The charge that we did not provide adequate security is not correct. The government did make arrangements to ensure the safety
of leaders on the yatra. But definitely there are some security lapses. An inquiry has already been ordered to fix responsibility,” Mr Singh said.
The CM said strict action will be taken against those found responsible for the lapses. Asked if the situation warranted Army involvement in anti-Naxal operations, he said the region was not a “battleground”, and added that a two-pronged strategy — development and an integrated action plan to tackle the menace — was needed. He said he had spoken to the chief justice of the Chhattisgarh high court and requested him to depute a sitting judge for the inquiry as soon as possible.
While a manhunt is on for the entire Naxal leadership, NIA investigations are focused on three top Naxalite commanders — Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand; Ramanna, Dandkarnya special zonal committee secretary, and Ganesh Udke, south zonal regional committee secretary. It is also suspected that besides women cadres, even children belonging to the Bal Sangham Wing, the CPI(Maoist) children’s unit, also participated in the attack.
Waking up to the threat of Naxal attacks rising in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh which will hold Assembly elections in months, the MHA on Monday clearly warned of a “continuing possibility of more attacks on political personalities and programmes”. In a fresh move, it asked all states affected by left-wing extremism to appoint a nodal officer in the state police headquarters exclusively tasked to “coordinate the programmes of all political parties”. It asked all such states to revamp the security of political workers and ensure political activities are not affected by violence.
An NIA team that reached Chhattisgarh late on Monday started its preliminary investigations, but conceded that it may be a long haul before the case is cracked and the actual conspirators are caught, given the modus operandi of Naxals and the difficult terrain in which they operate.
A detailed examination of the spot by the NIA reveals that the entire operation was planned days in advance. Food packets, bananas and water bottles recovered from the site indicates that the Naxals lay in ambush for some days. NIA officials suspect the planning and execution of the attack was done with the aid of the Maoists’ “military intelligence unit” and with the help of its Andhra leaders.
Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand, 53, hails from Adilabad in Andhra, and is one of CPI(Maoist)’s top nine leaders — part of the politburo and secretary of its “central regional bureau”. He is also in charge of operations in the Dandakaranya forests, north Telangana, and the Andhra-Orissa border . He is wanted in at least 17 cases in Andhra Pradesh, including several murders, and has a reward of `12 lakhs on his head.