NIA cracks Bastar ambush case as Naxal Usendi Sings

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency ( NIA) has claimed a breakthrough in its probe into the Maoist attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh last May, identifying two commanders of the Left-wing extremist organisation in Bastar for the ambush that wiped out much of the party’s brass in the state.

Surendra and Jailal are believed to have led the attack on the Congress convoy, a senior home ministry official told ET, saying the information emerged during the interrogation of Maoist leader GK Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi, who had surrendered in Andhra Pradesh earlier this month. Surendra is said to be heading the Darbha divisional committee of CPI (Maoist) while Jailal leads its second regional command company.

Usendi has revealed that almost 200 Maoists under the leadership of these two men led the attack and their main target was Congress leader Mahendra Karma, who was behind the counter-Maoist Salwa Judum movement in the state.

“Usendi says the cadres later indiscriminately killed other Congress leaders like former Union minister VC Shukla and Congress state president Nand Kumar Patel as well because they found them at the spot along with Karma, who was their chief target,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

The NIA is expected to issue ‘wanted’ notices for the two suspects and may make Usendi, who had sent out a press release at the time claiming responsibility for the attack, a witness in the case.

Usendi, who acted as the chief spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist), has made other important disclosures as well to the NIA, Intelligence Bureau and Andhra Pradesh Police. “Usendi says the top Maoist leadership, including the supreme commander Ganapathy, is ill and largely immobile, confined to the deep interiors of Bastar. The three main Maoist commanders leading the hard line military campaign of the CPI (Maoist) are Ramanna, Kosa and Tipiri Tirupati,” the official said.