A court in Bihar on Thursday awarded life sentence to the prime accused in one of the bloodiest massacres in the stateтАЩs history by an outlawed Maoist outfit, which had hacked to death 37 people three decades ago in Bara village of Gaya district.
District and sessions Judge, Gaya, Manoj Kumar Tiwari, also slapped Ram Chandra Yadav alias Kirani with a fine of тВ╣3.05 lakh, holding him guilty under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC.
Kirani was named in the massacre that took place on February 12, 1992, when 37 upper caste Bhumihars were butchered by the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC).
Central Bihar hogged the limelight in the 1980s and 1990s for a chain of retributive violence involving ultra-Left guerrillas and private militia of upper caste landlords.
The Bara massacre had been described by the MCC as тАЬrevengeтАЭ for killing of Dalits elsewhere by the тАШSavarna Liberation FrontтАЩ, one of the many upper caste militias that had cropped during the time, the most notorious being the тАШRanvir SenaтАЩ, which was held responsible for the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre of Jehanabad, where 67 Dalits were killed.
KiraniтАЩs counsel Tariq Ali told reporters after the verdict that тАЬwe are not satisfied and look forward to challenging the trial court order before the Supreme Court, since TADA cases cannot be heard by high courtsтАЭ.
тАЬWe were expecting release of my client since he has spent nearly 17 years behind the bars. The order is against the principles of natural justice,тАЭ said Ali, adding that he wished to challenge the order on тАЬother legal points as wellтАЭ.
Replying to a query, the defence counsel said, тАЬMany people had been arrested in connection with the massacre. However, the trial of my client was being conducted independently.тАЭ
A total of 13 people were named as accused in the case, of which four were awarded capital punishment in 2001. Later, their mercy petition was accepted by the President of India and the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
In 2009, three others were sentenced to death. Three others were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Kirani had gone absconding after the massacre and was arrested almost 15 years later. Since then, he was in jail, facing trial in the case.
Meanwhile, Satyendra Sharma, whose eight family members died in the massacre, said Kirani was a butcher and life imprisonment was not just. тАЬHe should be hanged,тАЭ he said.
