The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine an appeal filed by the Bihar government against the Patna High Court judgment which had set free 13 people convicted for the Senari massacre in 1999.
As many as 34 upper caste people were killed allegedly by cadres of the banned Maoist Communist Centre (MCC).
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari admitted the appeal by the Bihar government for consideration and asked for it to serve notice on all acquitted accused persons.
The High Court had in May 2021 set aside the judgment of a trial court and acquitted 13 accused.
In 1999, extremists allegedly linked to the MCC had executed 34 members of an upper caste in an open field in Senari.
On November 18, 2016, the Jehanabad district court had sentenced 10 persons to death and awarded life imprisonment to three others. The district court had acquitted 23 others for lack of evidence.
Bacchesh Singh, Buddhan Yadav, Butai Yadav, Satendra Das, Lallan Pasi, Dwarika Paswan, Kariban Paswan, Godai Paswan, Uma Paswan and Gopal Paswan were awarded the death penalty. Arvind Yadav, Mungeshwar Yadav and Vinay Paswan were given life imprisonment by the court.
The prosecution claimed that in the evening of March 18, 1999, the alleged MCC members forced 34 people, belonging to the upper caste Bhumihar community, to line up near a temple at Senari village and killed them by slitting their throats and shooting them.
The police had filed the case on information provided by Chintamani Devi, whose husband and son were among the 34 victims.
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(Published 12 July 2021, 09:54 IST)
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