HC acquits 26 convicted of Laxmanpur-Bathe carnage

In a startling verdict, the Patna high court on Wednesday acquitted all 26 people convicted by the trial court of massacring 58 dalits at Laxmanpur-Bathe village, 90km from Patna in Arwal district, on December 1, 1997, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Laxmanpur-Bathe was one of the worst single day massacres in Bihar's long drawn caste wars in the 1980s and 1990s.

Laxmanpur-Bathe, in Arwal district along the Sone river, was targeted by upper caste militia Ranvir Sena because its members believed the village's dalits, mostly poor and landless, were Maoist sympathizers involved in the killing of 37 upper caste men in Bara in Gaya in 1992. At least four dalit families were eliminated in the bloodbath.

There was apparently no connection between the upper caste members who had died in 1992 and the poor Dalits who were slaughtered in cold blood in 1997. Ranvir Sena was created by Bhumihars to take on the Naxals, who had dalits as foot soldiers.

The private militiamen had crossed the river Sone on two large boats, stealthily walked into the village, broke open doors and fired at the sleeping men, women and children at midnight on December 1. Incidentally, Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Mukhiya was killed in June 2012 with no headway yet on his murderers.

A division bench of Justice V N Sinha and Justice A K Lal said the prosecution had failed to produce proper evidence against the accused, said defence counsel Ram Suresh Rai. The court also asked the Arwal district magistrate to pay proper compensation to the kin of the carnage victims within two months.

Charges were framed in the case against 46 members of the Ranvir Sena on December 23, 2008. Amid a nationwide outcry over the Laxmanpur-Bathe killings, then RJD government headed by Rabri Devi had set up a judicial panel headed by Justice (retd) Amir Das to probe the political connections of the Ranvir Sena. But the commission was wrapped up in 2006 soon after Nitish Kumar became the CM as the NDA leader.

The opposition parties, including the RJD and CPI(ML), had then alleged the Nitish government was protecting the interests of the Ranvir Sena and suppressing the voice of the poorest of the poor.

Those sentenced to death by the trial court included Girija Singh, Surendra Singh, Ashok Singh, Gopal Sharan Singh, Baleshwar Singh, Dwarka Singh, Vijendra Singh, Nawal Singh, Baliram Singh, Nandu Singh, Sheomohan Sharma, Pramod Singh, Shatrughan Singh, Ramkeval Sharma, Dharma Singh and Nand Singh. Those awarded life imprisonment were Babloo Sharma, Ashok Singh, Mithilesh Sharma, Dharikshan Choudhary, Navin Kumar, Ravindra Singh, Surendra Singh, Sunil Kumar, Pramod Kumar and Chandreshwar Singh.

Source: TOI