Jharkhand HC grants bail to alleged Maoist lookout held six years in Lukuiya More police ambush case
A division bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Ram Sharma set aside the NIA special court's refusal, finding that Ramjit Nagesiya was placed in the observing team rather than the attacking party, has been in custody since November 2020, and stands on the same footing as two co-accused already released.
The Jharkhand High Court has granted bail to a man the National Investigation Agency describes as a sub-zonal commander of the CPI (Maoist) and a member of the reconnaissance team that fed police movements to the cadres who ambushed a patrol at Lukuiya More in Chandwa in November 2019, killing four policemen. A division bench of Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Justice Ram Sharma allowed Ramjit Nagesiya's appeal on 26 October 2026 and set aside the Special NIA Court's order of 27 July 2026 refusing him bail. He has been in custody since 4 November 2020, 19 of 89 witnesses have been examined, and two co-accused assigned the same lookout role are already out.
The ambush at Lukuiya More
On 22 November 2019 at about 8 p.m. a patrolling party of Chandwa Police Station stopped at Lukuiya More. According to the prosecution, CPI (Maoist) cadres waiting in advance opened indiscriminate fire, killing four police personnel. The attackers looted arms and ammunition from the dead, raised slogans and fled. A home guard, Dinesh Ram, escaped unhurt, ran to the police station and lodged the complaint that became Chandwa P.S. Case No. 158 of 2019, registered against 18 named and some unknown persons.
The state police chargesheeted six men: Baijnath Ganjhu, Sunil Ganjhu alias Mangra, Rajesh Kumar Ganjhu, Sanjay Ganjhu, Naresh Ganjhu and Faguna Ganjhu. On 22 June 2020 the Ministry of Home Affairs, acting under Section 6(5) read with Section 8 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, handed the case to the NIA, which re-registered it as RC No. 25 of 2020/NIA/DLI under Sections 147, 148, 149, 452, 302, 353 and 379 of the Indian Penal Code, Section 27 of the Arms Act, Section 17 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Sections 10, 13, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The NIA's first supplementary chargesheet named 34 persons and added conspiracy, waging war, attempt to murder, dacoity and further UAPA and Arms Act offences. Nagesiya is accused A-7 in that chargesheet.
What the chargesheet says he did
The bench quoted paragraph 17.24(7) of the supplementary chargesheet in full. The NIA's case is that Nagesiya joined the CPI (Maoist) in 2013 and became a sub-divisional commander. He attended the first conspiracy meeting at Budha Pahar in September 2019, where it was decided to carry out major incidents in Lohardaga and Latehar districts, and was present at the second meeting in Bulbul forest, where the ambush on a police PCR vehicle at Lukuiya More was planned. A team of 18 to 20 cadres was formed under A-14 and A-17. At a third meeting in Beerjangha forest, A-14 split them into a recce or observing team, an attacking team and a supporting team. Nagesiya was put in the observing team with A-20 and A-21, and on the day of the attack was deployed with a walkie-talkie alongside A-1 at Hotel Sunil on the Lohardaga road to report the movement of the police vehicle. On that basis the NIA charged him under Section 120B read with the IPC offences, Sections 121 and 121A, and Sections 16, 18, 20 and 38 of the UAPA.
Parity with Faguna Ganjhu and Baijnath Ganjhu
Abhinav Kumar, for the appellant, argued that Nagesiya is not named in the FIR and was implicated on the confession of a co-accused. He took no part in the firing; the allegation is that he was an overground worker passing information about police movements. Faguna Ganjhu, facing the same allegation, had been granted bail by a coordinate bench in Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 325 of 2026. Nagesiya has been in custody since 4 November 2020 with no prospect of the trial ending soon.
Amit Kumar Das, senior counsel for the NIA, resisted. Nagesiya was a sub-zonal commander and an active participant in the conspiracy to eliminate police personnel; he was part of the observing team and the information he supplied led to the incident in which four policemen died. He has criminal antecedents. The witness list had been pruned to 89, of whom 19 had already testified. His role, Das argued, was distinct from Faguna Ganjhu's.
The bench read the chargesheet and the affidavits for itself. Three teams were formed, and Nagesiya's name appears in the first, whose task was to observe and carry out reconnaissance of the ambush site. That team initially comprised Nagesiya, Kajeesh Ganjhu and Surajnath Kherwar, later joined by Faguna Ganjhu, Sanjay Ganjhu and Baijnath Ganjhu; information about the police was passed by walkie-talkie. Admittedly, the judges noted, Nagesiya was not in the attacking party, and even protected witnesses A and C identified him only as passing information to the cadres on the day. Faguna Ganjhu, also an overground worker who supplied logistical support by reporting police movements, had been granted bail in Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 325 of 2026, and Baijnath Ganjhu in Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 1132 of 2025.
The three criminal antecedents pressed by the NIA did not change the outcome. Weighing Nagesiya's role in the episode, his custody since November 2020, the remote possibility of the trial concluding in the near future and the release of similarly placed co-accused, the bench said it was inclined to allow the appeal.
Order
The order of 27 July 2026 in Misc. Criminal Application No. 1490 of 2026 in Special (NIA) Case No. 02 of 2020, passed by the Additional Judicial Commissioner-XVI-cum-Special Judge, NIA, Ranchi, was set aside. Nagesiya is to be released on bail on a bond of Rs 10,000 with two sureties of the like amount each, to the satisfaction of the same court, on condition that he remains physically present before the trial court on every date until the trial concludes unless prevented by sufficient cause. The appeal was allowed and pending interlocutory applications closed.