UP political parties vie to take credit for court verdict

Uttar Pradesh’s political parties claimed credit for Wednesday’s verdict by the Delhi High Court, which sentenced 16 former personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) to life imprisonment for the “custodial killings” of 38 Muslim men in Hashimpura on May 22, 1987.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said that they fought for justice for the victims of the massacre after the accused were let off by Delhi’s Tiz Hazari court in 2015. “The Akhilesh Yadav-led government in the state challenged the order in the Delhi High Court in 2015. The SP government also gave ₹5 lakh compensation to the victims.” In 2002, the case which was dragging in a Ghaziabad court was transferred to Delhi’s Tiz Hazari court based on a Supreme Court order. In 2015, the Delhi court acquitted all accused.

The families of the victims appealed against this order in the Delhi High Court.

Former UP additional advocate general Zafaryab Jilani said, “When the lower court acquitted the culprits in 2015, CM Akhilesh Yadav decided that the state government will challenge their acquittal in the Delhi High Court.”

A senior Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) leader however claimed that it was party supremo Mayawati who, as chief minister in 1997, ordered for the prosecution of the accused following the inquiry report of the Criminal Investigation Department. “Though the case remained pending in the court for a long time, it was only when the BSP government was in power in 1997, 2002 and 2007, that the family members of the victims were assisted in pursuing the case in the court.” “Despite delays, as the high court itself pointed out, law of the land is taking its course and the guilty have been brought to book pending appeal,” Congress party spokesperson Pranav Jha said. Former UP Director General of Police Vibhuti Narain Rai, who was superintendent of police, Ghaziabad, when the massacre took place, was among the first officers to reach the site. The author of a book on the massacre said that political parties should desist from using the incident or the court judgement to polarize vote. “The atrocities on the victims were committed by the state and its machinery and the state government should compensate them for the loss and suffering,” he said.