Sushant Ranjan

Patna, 21st May 2021: The Patna High Court overturned the judgment of the lower court and acquitted 13 convicts in the famous Senari massacre case. A division bench of Justice Ashwini Kumar Singh and Arvind Srivastava ordered the immediate release of the culprits. The Senari massacre took place in 1999, in which 34 people were killed.

On March 18, 1999, as many as 34 people of the upper caste were brutally murdered by Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in the massacre in Jehanabad’s Senari. The lower court had ordered to hang 10 culprits and a verdict of life imprisonment to the other three people was passed in 2016. The Patna High Court has overturned the judgment and acquitted 13 persons from this case.

A death reference was filed in the Patna High Court by the Bihar government to confirm the verdict of the lower court, while criminal appeals were filed on behalf of the convicts, Dwarka Paswan, Bachesh Kumar Singh, Mungeshwar Yadav, and others; challenging the decision of the lower court. Whereas the court has today ordered the acquittal of 13 convicts.

In 2016, the lower court had already acquitted 20 accused. At the same time, 4 of the total 70 accused in this case have deceased. On Friday, the Patna High Court ordered the acquittal of 13 convicts of the Senari massacre and asked them to be released immediately.

On the night of 1999, 34 people were thrown out of their houses after a siege of Senari village of Jehanabad, Bihar. Their arms and legs were bonded and they were strangled to death.