Bihar Murder Case: NIA Files Charge-sheet Against 4 CPI(Maoist) Leaders

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary charge sheet against four top leaders of the banned CPI(Maoist) in a case related to the brutal killing of a civilian in Bihar five years ago, an official said on Saturday.

The accused charge-sheeted on Friday in the NIA Special Court, Patna (Bihar) under relevant sections of IPC, Arms Act and UA(P)A have been identified as Ram Prasad Yadav, Abhijit Yadav and Abhyash Bhuiya alias "Prem Bhuiya" of Jharkhand and Subedar Yadav of Bihar, a spokesperson of the central agency said.

The official said all of them are senior leaders of the proscribed outfit CPI (Maoist). While Ram Prasad Yadav is a "sub-zonal commander", Abhijit Yadav and Subedar Yadav are "zonal commanders", while Abhyash Bhuiya is a "regional commander" of the outfit. "Investigations have revealed that they had all attended the outfit's meeting of zonal commanders, special area committee, and regional committee members, convened by accused Pramod Mishra (then CCM), in the forest of Anjanwa.

"It was during this meeting that it was decided to eliminate the Special Police Officers, including Naresh Singh Bhokta," the spokesperson said. Bhokta was abducted and ruthlessly killed allegedly by the banned outfit's members in November 2018. The NIA had taken over the case from the state police on June 24 last year.

Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of nine persons and the NIA had filed supplementary charge sheets against four persons in February and June this year. The spokesperson said with the arrest of the accused, NIA had unearthed the alleged involvement of top CPI (Maoist) commanders, including Polit Bureau member Pramod Mishra, in the conspiracy to commit this brutal murder, aimed at spreading fear and terror while propagating the outfit's anti-India ideology.

The NIA has also recovered the weapons used in the attack and their forensic examination has been completed. The three vehicles used by the CPI (Maoist) cadres in the attack have also been recovered and seized, the official said. "Investigations further established that Ram Prasad Yadav and Subedar Yadav were involved in recruiting members to CPI (Maoist) for committing terrorist acts. "Abhijit Yadav was involved mainly in collecting funds for the expansion of CPI (Maoist) and Abhyash Bhuiya used to provide physical and armed training to the cadres of CPI (Maoist)," the spokesperson said.