By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh police has destroyed documents related to the deployment of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel on the day Hashimpura massacre was allegedly carried out, it has been revealed.
On May 22, 1987, as many as 42 unarmed Muslim men were killed in cold blood in Hashimpura by members of Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC).
The Hindu reports a letter written by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Meerut shows the documents related to the deployment of PAC were “weeded out” on April 1, 2006, at a time when Tis Hazari court was hearing the case.
In the letter to the Crime Branch of the State Crime Investigation Department (CID), the SSP said it was now impossible to make available documents related to the deployment of the PAC personnel on the day that the massacre was allegedly carried out.
However, the letter gave no reason for the documents being weeded out.
“Your office has asked to make available the records of deputation and deployment of PAC personnel during the alleged massacre of the residents of Hashimpura Mohalla, to Zafaryab Jilani. It is brought to your notice that all the details of the case were weeded out on April 1, 2006. Hence, it is impossible to make them available,” said the letter signed by the Meerut SSP on January 30.
A senior official said the documents were required as the State government had appealed against the acquittal of the accused.
The massacre in 1987 was followed by a criminal investigation, a Commission of inquiry, court hearings in two states and depositions by scores of people, including five survivors who were thrown into a river and left for dead.
On March 21, 2015 Delhi trial court acquitted all the 16 PAC personnel from the case sighting lack of evidences. An appeal against these acquittals is pending before Delhi high court.