A court in Bihar on Thursday awarded life sentence to the prime accused in one of the bloodiest massacres in the state’s history by an outlawed Maoist outfit, which had hacked to death nearly 40 people three decades ago.
District and Sessions Judge, Gaya, Manoj Kumar Tiwari, also slapped Ram Chandra Yadav alias Kirani with a fine of Rs 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 in Bara village of Gaya district 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 “revenge” for killing of dalits elsewhere by the Savarna Liberation Front’, one of the many upper caste militias that had cropped during the time, the most notorious being the Ranvir Sena’, which was held responsible for the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre of Jehanabad, where 67 dalits were killed.
Kirani’s counsel Tariq Ali told reporters after the verdict that “we are not satisfied and look forward to challenging the trial court order before the Supreme Court, since TADA cases cannot be heard by high courts”.
“We 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,” said Ali, adding that he wished to challenge the order on “other legal points as well”.
Replying to a query, the defence counsel said, “Many people had been arrested in connection with the massacre. However, the trial of my client was being conducted independently.”
