Meticulous planning over three months, site surveys and recce, handpicked cadre, expert rationing of food stocks and a rehearsal – this is how the Jhiram Ghati attack that killed 27 people and nearly wiped out Chhattisgarh Congress’s entire state leadership on May 25, 2013, was planned, the order of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court says.

In its order, the NIA court, which classified the case among the “rarest of the rare” and sentenced the 10 convicted Maoists to death this Wednesday, said the deadly attack had been planned between February 16 and 25, and that 8 to 9 kg of explosives were used and 206 bullets fired on the Congress’s Parivartan Yatra convoy vehicles. The outlaws had carefully planned and recced the area, and also conducted a rehearsal, “making it clear that the incident was premeditated and deliberate”, the order said.

“On 25/05/2013, the Congress Party’s Parivartan Yatra had started from Sukma towards Jagdalpur, and when the convoy reached near Jhiram Ghati, there was a hill on one side and a ditch on the other side near the incident spot,” the order said. “To stop the Parivartan Yatra, the road was blocked by using approximately 8-9 kg of prohibited arms/ammunition and special category explosives like PETN, TNT in the middle of the road, and by cutting down trees, and firing was done from a place on top of the hill, and the victims were shot at close range. Approximately 206 bullets were fired into the vehicles.”

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The order also noted the sequence of events that led to the murder of Congress leader Mahendra Karma, the man behind the banned Salwa Judum and believed to be the prime target of the attack. According to the order, investigators found 69 injuries on his body, and that “Karma identified himself and asked not to kill other innocent people”.

The court order said: “The evidence of the applicant and the injured persons revealed that at the scene of the incident, Maoists were searching for Salwa Ludum leaders Mahendra Karma and Nand Kumar Patel and their relatives. It was also revealed that even after Mahendra Karma surrendered at the scene, identifying himself as Mahendra Karma and pleading not to kill innocent people, the Naxalites dragged him to a hillside, shot him at close range, threw stones at his face, and after killing him, celebrated by his body. Even after his death, he sustained knife injuries, as confirmed by medical witnesses,” the order said.

Investigators, the order said, found that a meeting of Maoists South Regional Unified Command was held between February 16 and 25, 2013, to plan the attack. Maoist leaders also surveyed the Sukma-Jagdalpur national highway carefully to select the Jhiram Valley as the site of the attack.

A special team comprising various military units and local cadres was handpicked for the attack, the order said. The now surrendered Maoist leader, Barse Sukka alias Deva – then a member of the Darbha Divisional Committee – was entrusted with execution of the attack.

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About 50 kg of rice was collected to be supplied to a temporary Maoist camp to feed those who would be part of it. A week before the attack, a rehearsal was held in a forest near Ekkam-Chakpal, the order said.

On the nights of May 22 and 23, an armed group of around 100 Maoists, along with Jan Militia members from the Kanger Valley area, established temporary command centres on both sides of the road. The cadres were armed with AK-series rifles, SLRs, LMGs, .303 rifles, grenades and country-made firearms, the order cited the NIA as saying.

“This clearly indicates that the incident was pre-planned and carried out deliberately,” the court said.