Senari massacre case: Supreme Court to hear Bihar's appeal against acquittal of 14 people; issues notices

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Bihar governments appeal against the acquittal of 14 people by the Patna High Court in a twodecadeold Senari massacre in which 34 people were killed allegedly by Maoist groupsA bench comprising Justices Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari issued notices to all those who were acquitted by the high court in the case The Bihar government through advocate Abhinav Mukerji has challenged the May 21 high court order saying the testimonies of eyewitnesses were not consideredThe case of the prosecution is supported by a total of 23 witnesses out of which 13 are eyewitnesses who lost their near family in the mass carnage and includes three injured witnesses It is important to note that none of the accused disputed the date time place and manner of occurrence but still stand acquitted by the judgment on a misreading of the law and evidence on record The findings of the HC are contrary to the evidence placed on record and the law declared by this Court on various principles of law The Impugned Order fails to consider the contentions of the State and the reasons advanced by the Trial Court for convicting the accused in its well reasoned and detailed judgment that had been passed taking into account the conduct of the witnesses the appeal statedThe high court had allowed the appeal of the accused setting aside the trial court orders passed in November 2016 by which they were convicted and awarded varying punishments for their roles in the carnage at Senari village The convicts Dukhan Ram Kahar Bachesh Kumar Singh Budhan Yadav Gopal Sao Butai Yadav Satendra Das Lallan Pasi Dwarik Paswan Kariman Paswan Gorai Paswan Uma Paswan were sentenced to the death penalty and Mungeshwar Yadav Vinay Paswan and Arvind Paswan sentenced life imprisonment by the trial courtAlso ReadSC to hear plea for probe into Islamophobic posts after Tablighi eventAltogether 34 upper caste persons were hacked to death on March 19 1999 by members of the outlawed Maoist Communist Centre at the nondescript village which was then a part of Jehanabad district but now falls in Arwal carved out later In the FIR lodged subsequently family members of the deceased had named the accused and the matter was tried before the court of Additional Sessions Judge JehanabadThe high court however was of the view that the burden of proof of guilt of an accused is upon the prosecution It must stand by itself In the present case there is real and reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the appellants It was widely believed that the MCC had struck at Senari to avenge the killing of more than 60 of its alleged sympathisers at Laxmanpur Bathe less than two years ago when the dreaded Ranvir Sena had carried out the worst ever carnage in the history of the stateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever