The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside a trial court judgment acquitting all the 16 Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) men in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre in Uttar Pradesh and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
They all were accused of killing 42 people of a minority community in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case in Uttar Pradesh.
A bench of justices came down heavily on S Muralidhar-Vinod Goel judgment which had acquitted the accused and said that the “massacre of 42 persons of a minority community in Hashimpura was targeted killing of unarmed and defenceless persons. Families had to wait 31 years for justice.”
The sentence comes a week after the UP government had approached the High Court against a trial court order in which the policemen were found not guilty of the charges of murder, attempt to murder, tampering with evidence and conspiracy in the massacre case in which 42 people were killed in Meerut city.
Those acquitted in the Hashimpura case include Suresh Chand Sharma, Niranjan Lal, Kamal Singh, Budhi Singh, Basant Ballab, Kunwar Pal Singh, Budha Singh, Rambir Singh, Leela Dhar, Hambir Singh, Mokam Singh, Shami Ullaha, Sarwan Kumar, Jaipal Singh, Mahesh Prasad and Ram Dhayan.
According to the prosecution, PAC personnel had come to village Hashimpura on May 22, 1987, and picked up about 50 Muslims as a congregation of 500 had gathered outside a mosque there. The victims were shot by the accused personnel and their bodies were thrown into a canal, it had said, adding 42 persons were declared to have perished in the massacre.
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