Jhiram Valley Maoist attack case ‘rarest of rare': court order

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur termed the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack as “rarest of rare”, holding that even after giving utmost importance to the mitigating circumstances, no other option remained except death penalty. The court, in a release issued on Wednesday (September 16, 2026), awarded death sentences to all 10 convicts.

The court said it was satisfied that life imprisonment in the case was inadequate. It referred to the Supreme Court judgments in cases such as Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab, (1983) and Mohd. Ajmal Mohammad Amir Kasab v. State of Maharashtra, (2012).

Twenty seven people, including senior Congress leaders Vidya Charan Shukla, Nand Kumar Patel, and Mahendra Karma, were killed in the attack on May 25, 2013.