NIA files charge sheet against two Naxals in 2018 Bihar murder case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against two dreaded Naxals for their involvement in the abduction and killing of a civilian in Bihar in 2018, an official statement issued on Saturday said.

The accused have been identified as Anil Yadav alias Ankush alias Lavkush of Gaya district, Bihar and Pramod Mishra alias Sohan Da alias BB Ji of Aurangabad district of the state, both members of the banned terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist), it said.

Yadav and Mishra were notorious “Naxal terrorists with various criminal cases registered against them in different police stations of Bihar and Jharkhand”, the NIA said in its statement.

The agency filed its fourth supplementary charge sheet in the case before a special court here on Friday. With Yadav and Mishra, the total number of accused charge-sheeted in the case has risen to 11.

Yadav and Mishra were arrested by the NIA, which took over the probe in June 2022, in February this year.

The case relates to the abduction and murder of Naresh Singh Bhokta by CPI (Maoist) activists, it said.

During the investigation, the NIA found that Mishra, who was a central committee member and later became a Polit Bureau member of the CPI (Maoist), had directed other Naxal cadres to eliminate Bhokta as he was suspected to be a police informer, the statement said.

Bhokta was abducted and killed by cadres of CPI (Maoist) on November 2, 2018, it said.

Yadav, a Sub-Zonal Committee member of the CPI (Maoist), was a close aide of Mishra and was actively involved in the case, it added.

Mishra had also convened the meeting of zonal commanders and other members of the CPI (Maoist) in the forest of Anjanwa, where it was decided to eliminate various special police officers (SPOs), the NIA said.