Raipur, Sept. 6 -- A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district on Saturday convicted all 10 accused in the 2013 Jhiram Valley Maoist attack case, in which 29 people, including senior Congress leaders, were killed. Special Judge of the National Investigation Agency court in Jagdalpur, Ajay Singh Rajput, convicted the 10 accused, including two women, defence lawyer Arvind Choudhary said. The court has reserved the order on the quantum of punishment for September 16. During the trial, statements of 101 witnesses were recorded, the defence lawyer said. The convicted accused are Pramila Modiyam (40), Chaitu Lekam, Sumitra Punem Modiyam, Mukka Mandavi, Kosa Kavasi, Aayata Markam, Madkami Deva, Joga Madkami, Banjami Sanna and Mahadev Nag. "We will appeal against the verdict in the High Court. We have not received a copy of the judgment yet. We will be able to give the grounds for appeal after receiving it," Choudhary said. He said the defence had strongly presented its case and expressed hope that the accused would get justice from the High Court. Trial proceedings were initiated against 11 arrested accused in the case, of whom one died during the proceedings, Choudhary said. Guddu Kavasi, brother of convicted accused Kosa Kavasi, claimed that his brother and Mukka Mandavi had been falsely implicated in the case. He claimed Kosa Kavasi was involved in preparations for a family wedding when the attack took place, while Mandavi was also engaged in marriage preparations in the village. "They were not there at the time of the attack. Those who were involved have surrendered and are living freely, while those who were not involved are paying the price. The families are distressed and shattered," Guddu said. The deadly attack took place on May 25, 2013, when Maoists ambushed the Congress' 'Parivartan Rally' on a national highway in Jhiram Valley under Darbha police station limits in Bastar district. Twenty-nine people, including Congress leaders, civilians and security personnel, were killed and more than 30 others injured in the attack, which virtually wiped out the Congress' top leadership in the state at the time. Those killed included then-state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, former Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Mahendra Karma, former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, and senior Congress leader and former MLA Uday Mudliyar. However, then chief minister, Amit Jogi, escaped with injuries. The leaders were going for a rally organised ahead of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections later that year. The state police initially registered a case, but the then Raman Singh-led BJP government handed over the probe to the NIA within two days of the attack. The state government also constituted a judicial commission headed by then Chhattisgarh High Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra to inquire into the incident. The NIA filed a chargesheet against nine arrested accused before its special court in Jagdalpur on September 25, 2014. It filed a supplementary chargesheet against 30 accused on September 28, 2015, with two of them subsequently arrested. Some of the accused named by the NIA as absconders later surrendered before the police to join the mainstream, officials said. In January 2019, the then Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the attack, alleging that the NIA had not investigated the larger conspiracy behind it. Police subsequently registered a fresh FIR at Darbha police station on May 25, 2020, under Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC against unidentified persons on the complaint of Jitendra Mudliyar, son of Congress leader Uday Mudliyar, who was killed in the attack. The complainant alleged that the conspirators were still at large and that the conspiracy angle had not been covered in the NIA probe. The NIA moved the special court on June 16, 2020, seeking transfer of the fresh probe to the agency. The plea was rejected, following which the agency approached the Supreme Court, which declined to interfere. The issue has remained a major political flashpoint in Chhattisgarh, with Baghel repeatedly alleging that the larger conspiracy behind the attack was not probed. The former chief minister had also alleged that Maoist leaders Ganapathi and Ramanna were initially named in the NIA's FIR in connection with the conspiracy but their names did not figure in the chargesheet. The Congress had also alleged that the NIA investigation lost momentum after the NDA government came to power at the Centre in 2014. Meanwhile, the secretary and registrar (judicial) of the Chhattisgarh High Court handed over the report of the Jhiram Ghati Inquiry Commission to then Governor Anusuiya Uikey on November 6, 2021. Baghel, who was chief minister at the time, subsequently questioned the manner in which the report was submitted to the Governor and said the state government had not received any information from Raj Bhavan. The Congress government later reconstituted the judicial commission by appointing a new chairman and a member and extended its tenure by six months....