Murder of 35 in 1992: Supreme Court commutes death of two to life term
24 Sept 2013 5:40 AM IST
The death penalty awarded to three men, for being part of a mob which in February 1992 murdered 35 persons of village Bara in Bihar, has been modified by the Supreme Court which acquitted one and sent the other two to prison for their entire lives.
A bench of justices AK Patnaik and HL Gokhale acquitted Maoist Communist Centre member Naresh Paswan on the basis of lack of evidence and shoddy investigation by the police.
The death sentence of convicts Vyas Ram and Bugal Mochi, also MCC members, was commuted to life term by the bench on the basis of the long duration of the trial and because they belonged to economically weaker and exploited sections of society.
‘We have to note that as far as the present trial is concerned, the occurrence of the crime is of February 1992 and the charges were framed in May 2004. More than nine years have gone thereafter also and the appellants have been facing the trauma of the crime and the trial all this period. Besides, as noted earlier, the manner in which the investigation has proceeded was far from satisfactory,’ the SC bench said.
‘The present incident was claimed to be a retaliatory attack by the members of MCC. They are essentially the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and backward classes and economically weaker and exploited sections of society. The attack was supposed to be in retaliation to an earlier attack by the Bhumihar community, led by the Ranvir Sena’.
‘It is quite possible that due to their poverty and caste conflict in the villages they were drawn in the melee and participated in the crime’, the apex court bench said.
A bench of justices AK Patnaik and HL Gokhale acquitted Maoist Communist Centre member Naresh Paswan on the basis of lack of evidence and shoddy investigation by the police.
The death sentence of convicts Vyas Ram and Bugal Mochi, also MCC members, was commuted to life term by the bench on the basis of the long duration of the trial and because they belonged to economically weaker and exploited sections of society.
‘We have to note that as far as the present trial is concerned, the occurrence of the crime is of February 1992 and the charges were framed in May 2004. More than nine years have gone thereafter also and the appellants have been facing the trauma of the crime and the trial all this period. Besides, as noted earlier, the manner in which the investigation has proceeded was far from satisfactory,’ the SC bench said.
‘The present incident was claimed to be a retaliatory attack by the members of MCC. They are essentially the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and backward classes and economically weaker and exploited sections of society. The attack was supposed to be in retaliation to an earlier attack by the Bhumihar community, led by the Ranvir Sena’.
‘It is quite possible that due to their poverty and caste conflict in the villages they were drawn in the melee and participated in the crime’, the apex court bench said.
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