JAGDALPUR — In a verdict delivered nearly eleven years after the attack, the Additional District and Sessions Court in Kanker on Tuesday convicted five cadres of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for their involvement in a deadly ambush targeting a police patrol in the state's Kanker district.
The incident under consideration took place in 2015 in the forested area near Bhainsgaon-Nagarmari, where Maoist fighters laid a trap for a police party moving through the region. The court found Prabhakar, popularly known as Balmuri Narayan Rao, guilty as a senior Maoist leader who played a pivotal organisational role in planning and executing the attack. His wife, Raje Kange, also known as Malti and Nirmala, was convicted alongside him. The couple was each sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
Three other accused — Ramesh Kumar Kumeti, Shyamnath Usendi, and Chinturam Tamrakar — were likewise found guilty and awarded varying terms of rigorous imprisonment, though the exact duration for each was not separately detailed in initial reports.
The conviction marks a significant development in a case that had lingered through prolonged investigations and legal proceedings spanning more than a decade. Security forces had tracked down the accused over the years, and their arrest paved the way for the trial that eventually reached conviction.
Kanker district in south-eastern Chhattisgarh has historically been a corridor of Maoist activity, with dense forests and tribal-population areas providing terrain that insurgents have exploited for decades. The 2015 ambush was part of a broader pattern of violence in which Maoist groups targeted security personnel, government infrastructure, and symbols of state authority across the region.
Legal experts noted that securing convictions in such cases remains challenging due to witness intimidation, limited forensic evidence from jungle engagements, and the time elapsed between the incident and the final judgment. Nevertheless, the Kanker court's decision is being viewed as a milestone by anti-Naxal operations coordinators in the state.
