Patna,(BiharTimes): A bench of Justice A K Patnaik and Justice H L Gokhale of Supreme Court on Monday acquitted Maoist Communist Centre––now CPI (Maoist)––member Naresh Paswan on the basis of lack of evidence and shoddy investigation by the police and converted the death sentence of the other two accused Vyas Ram and Bugal Mochi into life imprisonment. 

The three got death penalty for their role in the massacre of 35 people, almost all upper caste Bhumihars, at Bara village in Gaya district on February 12, 1992.

The bench modified the ruling 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 apex court said. 

It further 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. This is not to say that such acts are to be condoned. But at the same time, we have to consider as to whether after taking into account these circumstances of the accused, death sentence was warranted. We do not think so," the bench said. 

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea of the three men who had challenged the death penalty awarded to them under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) by a designated Gaya court in 2009. 

BihaTimes is of the view that the Supreme Court ruling has a factual error. True, Bhumihars might have been responsible for the killings of Dalits before February 1992 but to state that it was the handiwork of Ranvir Sena would be wrong as this outfit came up in Sep 1994. 

Earlier, the Savarna Liberation Army, another private army, was active in that particular region.