<p>New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the convictions and life sentences of several persons in a shocking case of mass murder from Bihar, in which five members of a family were killed in a brutal attack in 1983.</p><p>A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh observed that the brutality of the incident “shocks the judicial conscience” and leaves no room for misplaced sympathy or leniency. </p><p>The court dismissed the appeals filed by Mahendra Rai alias Harendra Narain Singh and others, the convicts challenging August 3, 2017 judgment of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/patna-high-court">Patna High Court</a>, which had upheld their conviction and life imprisonment awarded by the trial court.</p>.Chhattisgarh: Trial court acquits 17 accused in 2023 Biranpur communal clash case.<p>The incident occurred on the day of Holi in March 1983 in a village in Muzaffarpur district. A mob of at least 58 persons, armed with deadly weapons, surrounded the house of Chandra Shekhar Choudhary, set it on fire and brutally killed five persons while injuring several others, including women and children.</p><p>“The high court has meticulously summarised the role of each accused person and identified those who ignited the straw, those who set the house on fire, those who chased the fleeing victims and those who inflicted fatal blows upon the deceased persons,” the bench noted.</p><p>The court said the evidence clearly established that the accused formed an unlawful assembly, were armed with lethal weapons, and acted in furtherance of their common object to set the house ablaze and cause the deaths. </p><p>Once the common object is proved, every member becomes vicariously liable for the acts committed, the bench pointed out.</p><p>It emphasised that the accused actively participated at different stages — surrounding the house, setting it on fire, chasing the victims, and assaulting them.</p><p>The court noted that several appellants had died during the pendency of the appeals before the high court, leading to abatement of their cases. It directed the surviving convicts — except those who received the benefit of juvenility — to surrender immediately before the trial court and serve the remaining part of their sentences.</p>
<p>New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the convictions and life sentences of several persons in a shocking case of mass murder from Bihar, in which five members of a family were killed in a brutal attack in 1983.</p><p>A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh observed that the brutality of the incident “shocks the judicial conscience” and leaves no room for misplaced sympathy or leniency. </p><p>The court dismissed the appeals filed by Mahendra Rai alias Harendra Narain Singh and others, the convicts challenging August 3, 2017 judgment of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/patna-high-court">Patna High Court</a>, which had upheld their conviction and life imprisonment awarded by the trial court.</p>.Chhattisgarh: Trial court acquits 17 accused in 2023 Biranpur communal clash case.<p>The incident occurred on the day of Holi in March 1983 in a village in Muzaffarpur district. A mob of at least 58 persons, armed with deadly weapons, surrounded the house of Chandra Shekhar Choudhary, set it on fire and brutally killed five persons while injuring several others, including women and children.</p><p>“The high court has meticulously summarised the role of each accused person and identified those who ignited the straw, those who set the house on fire, those who chased the fleeing victims and those who inflicted fatal blows upon the deceased persons,” the bench noted.</p><p>The court said the evidence clearly established that the accused formed an unlawful assembly, were armed with lethal weapons, and acted in furtherance of their common object to set the house ablaze and cause the deaths. </p><p>Once the common object is proved, every member becomes vicariously liable for the acts committed, the bench pointed out.</p><p>It emphasised that the accused actively participated at different stages — surrounding the house, setting it on fire, chasing the victims, and assaulting them.</p><p>The court noted that several appellants had died during the pendency of the appeals before the high court, leading to abatement of their cases. It directed the surviving convicts — except those who received the benefit of juvenility — to surrender immediately before the trial court and serve the remaining part of their sentences.</p>
