Description
A Meerut court has acquitted 40 people charged with arson, murder and riot in the 36-year-old Maliana communal standoff case for lack of evidence. Riots broke out in Maliana on 23 May 1987, following clashes in Hashimpura on 22 May of that year following communal violence in the city during Shab-e-Barat on 14 April which left 12 dead. In the violence in Maliana, 63 people were killed, while in Hashimpura, 42 people lost their lives.
After hearing both sides in Maliana's case, District and Extraordinary Sessions Judge Lakhwinder Sood acquitted all 40 defendants on Saturday.
The victim's relatives said they would appeal the verdict to the High Court.
Lawyer CL Bansal, who represents the defendants, said the court acquitted them for lack of evidence citing lack of evidence. More than 800 dates have been reserved for the hearing in the Maliana case. There were 74 witnesses at the trial, of whom only 25 remain. Some witnesses have also left town.
The case was brought against 93 people, named and unidentified, on May 24, 1987, and of these, 40 died and the rest cannot be traced. The incident took place at Maliana Holi Chowk in Meerut on May 23, 1987, and Yakub Ali, a local, filed a lawsuit against 93 people on May 24 of the same year, the district government's additional lawyer told reporters ( ADGC) Sachin Mohan. .
In the May 23, 1987 incident, some 63 people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to Mohan.
Ali had alleged that the defendant committed arson and opened fire on people, the ADGC said. Mohan said that in Maliana's case, 10 witnesses, including the plaintiff, testified in court, but the prosecution was unable to prove the charge against the defendant with sufficient evidence.
The court, after looking at witness testimony and archived evidence, ordered the acquittal of 40 defendants, giving them the benefit of the doubt, Mohan said.
He said 40 other defendants in the case have died since the incident and the others could not be found.
Following the verdict, Mahtab (40), a relative of one of the victims of the Maliana violence, told reporters that her "father Ashraf was shot dead during the riots."
“I was very young at the time. They killed him for no reason,” Mahtab said, adding that “the court's decision is not fair and he will appeal to the High Court shortly after holding talks with other families (of the victims). )'. Afzal Saifi (45) said that he would appeal the court's decision to the High Court.
He said that on the day of the violence, his father, Yasin, was shot on his way home and his body was dumped near a candy store.
Following the series of riots in Meerut in 1987, the administration imposed a curfew to control the situation, but tensions remained high and clashes broke out on and off for almost three months.
