The Centre told the Supreme Court that it needs to be tough on Naxalism during a plea seeking an SIT investigation into an alleged massacre in a Chhattisgarh village which is currently been probed by the CBI.

Centre was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who told a bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice M M Sundresh that there are organisations which send their fact-finding teams which go to Naxal incidents with a pre-determined conclusion faulting the security forces and then petitions are filed in the courts.

A plea was been file seeking constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) comprising officers from outside Chhattisgarh for prosecuting the members of the combined forces for the alleged massacre in Bijapur district’s Edesmeta village on May 17, 2013,where many people were killed.

The plea also asks for compensation to the victims and their families. The Supreme Court had in 2019 said that it was convinced that the matter pertaining to the inquiry into the incident should be referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for an expeditious probe.

Court had earlier said that the director CBI shall ensure that the investigation is done by an officer or officers who are not from the state of Chhattisgarh.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Mehta reminded that the matter is serious as it relates to a Naxal incident.

The SG told that the CBI probe into the incident shall be completed and a final status report will be submitted before the court by November 30.

The matter has been posted for further hearing on December 9.

The State of Chhattisgarh was represented by Advocate Sumeer Sodhi but Court said it was not satisfied with the progress made by the SIT from 2014 till date in its inquiry.