Jagdalpur: All 10 convicts in the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack, in which 29 people, including senior Congress leaders were killed, have been awarded the death penalty by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district on Wednesday.
The special judge in Jagdalpur had convicted the 10 accused, including two women, on September 5 and reserved the order on the quantum of punishment for September 16, an NIA counsel said.
"The court has awarded the death penalty to all 10 convicts," he said.
Maoists ambushed the Congress' 'Parivartan Rally' ahead of the state assembly elections on the national highway in Jhiram Valley on May 25, 2013.
As many as 29 people, including Congress leaders, civilians and security personnel, were killed and more than 30 others injured.
Those killed included then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, former Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Mahendra Karma, former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, and senior Congress leader and former MLA Uday Mudliyar.
The then Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government handed over the probe to the NIA within two days of the attack. The state government also constituted a judicial commission headed by then Chhattisgarh High Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra to probe the incident.
