AGAIN, VERDICT IN BEHMAI MASSACRE CASE DEFERRED

KANPUR : Verdict in the Behmai massacre case was deferred on Saturday for the third time this month after the court found the original copy of the case diary missing from the records. Special judge, anti-dacoity, Sanjiv Singh issued notice to the court clerk Rajendra Yadav and fixed January 24 as the next date for the verdict. The yet another deferment of the verdict elicited angry response from the complainant Rajaram Singh and the families of those killed 39 years ago.

KANPUR : Verdict in the Behmai massacre case was deferred on Saturday for the third time this month after the court found the original copy of the case diary missing from the records.

Special judge, anti-dacoity, Sanjiv Singh issued notice to the court clerk Rajendra Yadav and fixed January 24 as the next date for the verdict. The yet another deferment of the verdict elicited angry response from the complainant Rajaram Singh and the families of those killed 39 years ago.

Singh said the court knew about the missing document all along then why did it fix the date for pronouncing the verdict. “We are feeling the same as water is taken away from a thirsty man,” he said in Mati, Akbarpur of Kanpur Dehat district.

The trial in one of most-talkedabout case was completed on December 17, 2018 and the court had fixed January 6 for the verdict. But the lawyers of the five accused asked the court some more time to file certain citations of high court and the Supreme Court.

The court had given them till January 16 to file the citations and told them the court would decide the case on January 18. District governing counsel (DGC)

Raju Porwal said the case diary is an essential document and the court has issued notice to the court clerk. The verdict would be pronounced on the next date.

Twenty people were killed on February 14, 1981 by a group of bandits led by late Phoolan Devi in Behmai. But the trial in the case started in 2012 and that, too, on five of 28 accused.

The five accused are Posa, Bheekha, Vishwanath alias Putani, Shyam Babu and Ram Singh. Two of them Posa and Bheeka were arrested in 2017.

While 17 of the accused have died of natural causes and police encounters, the prime accused in the case Phoolan Devi, who after her release from jail in 1994 became an MP from Mirzapur, was killed in 2001 at her house in New Delhi. The other five accused, including her right hand man Maan Singh, have not been arrested so far in 39 years.

Also, four of the five people who were injured in the Behmai attack have also passed away. It has been a long wait for justice for the Behmai widows -- 10 of the 20 widows have also died.

Munni Devi, who became the youngest widow at the age of 11 at that time, said their sentiments were being hurt with the delay in judgment.