Patna: More than 12 years after 58 dalits were massacred in a midnight attack on Laxmanpur Bathe village by Ranvir Sena, a Patna court on Wednesday sentenced 16 convicts to death while giving life term to 10 others. Nineteen accused were acquitted.
Laxmanpur Bathe is in Arwal district, 125km from Patna and along the banks of the Sone river. It was targeted because Ranvir Sena members believed the village’s dalits, mostly poor and landless, were sympathizers of Maoists who were behind the killing of 37 upper caste men in Bara in Gaya district in 1992. Ranvir Sena was created by Bhumihars to take on the Naxals, who had dalits as foot soldiers.
The private militiamen crossed the 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 . Prosecution wants Ranvir Sena chief tried separately
Patna: The law has finally caught up with the murderers responsible for the 1997 Jehanabad carnage. Patna’s additional judge V P Mishra said it was clear that the massacre was carried out to avenge the killing of 37 upper caste members at Bara in Gaya district by Maoist cadres in February 1992.
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.
Sixteen convicts were sentenced to death. ADJ Mishra handed out life term and a fine of Rs 50,000 each to 10 people.
The money collected will be given to families of the Luxmanpur Bathe village victims.
Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Mukhia was among the accused in the case, but his trial did not take place as the prosecution failed to produce him in court.
He is in Ara jail 50 km from Patna. The prosecution on Wednesday demanded that Mukhia be tried separately. After the case was transferred from Jehanabad to Patna by the high court in October 1999, more than 90 witnesses were examined or cross-examined. Thirty-eight of them turned hostile.
Charges were framed against 46 Ranvir Sena activists on December 23, 2008, and the trial concluded on April 1 this year.
While the prosecution demanded the severest punishment to the guilty, defence lawyers pleaded the accused had no criminal antecedent and that their crime could not be categorized as ‘‘rarest of rare’’.
The judge said he relied on Supreme Court rulings in similar cases.
The 1990s saw a series of massacres as a war of attrition raged between the Maoist Command Centre and Ranvir Sena.
In March 99, suspected Maoist Command Centre men killed 34 upper caste men at Senari village in Arwal to avenge Baathe, Shankarbigha and Narayanpur massacres.
While 23 Dalits were killed in Shankarbigha in January 1999, 11 of them were hacked to death at Narayanpur, Jehanabad, in February 1999.
Ranvir Sena activists also killed 35 Yadavs at Mianpur village in Aurangabad district on June 16, 2000, to avenge the Senari killings.
Bara case, seven Maoists were given death by two separate Tada courts in Gaya in June 2001 and February 2009. The judgment in other cases is awaited.While Ranvir Sena has since become defunct, caste-based killings by Naxalites in Bihar have also become few and far between.
13 Yrs To Justice Dec 1, 1997 | Ranvir Sena butchers 58 dalits at Laxmanpur-Bathe (then in Bihar’s Jehanabad, now in Arwal district) to avenge the massacre of 37 Bhumihars at Bara in Gaya in February 1992 by MCC (it has since merged into CPI(Maoist))
Oct, 1999 | Patna HC tranfers case to a Patna court from Jehanabad
Dec 23, 2008 | Charges framed against 46 Ranvir Sena men
Apr 1, 2010 | Trial ends after 90-odd witnesses depose; 38 of them later turn hostile
Apr 7 | Capital punishment awarded to 16 people, life to 10 convicts; 19 acquitted
Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Mukhia, also an accused, not on trial as prosecution fail to produce him in court; Now in Ara jail, he will face separate trial
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