Highly placed sources in the NIA have confirmed to this newspaper that they are probing the possible involvement of an insider in the brutal Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh on May 25.
NIA sources said initial investigations give rise to “strong suspicions” about why the Naxals “singled out” state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son and killed them.
It is almost certain, investigating sources said, that unlike Mahendra Karma, the Naxals had not been desperate to eliminate Patel. Karma, being the founder of Salwa Judum, had always been on the Naxals’ hit list. The NIA has found evidence suggesting Patel always had “good working relations” with political adversaries.
Even though various conspiracy theories are doing the rounds, NIA sources said they would submit a detailed report backed by solid evidence to the Union ministry of home affairs in the days to come. The NIA is confident of unravelling the “conspiracy”, they said.
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Petrol price hiked by 75p, dieseL up 50p
New Delhi, May 31: The price of petrol was on Friday hiked by 75 paise per litre and that of diesel by 50 paise a litre as the rupee hit an 11-month low, making oil imports costlier.
The increase in rates, which exclude local sales tax or VAT, will be effective from Friday midnight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest oil firm, said. The increase in the petrol price is the first in three months, the last hike being on March 1. Oil companies also cut by `45 a cyliner the price of LPG that consumers have to buy beyond their quota of nine subsidised cylinders a year. — PTI