By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Patna: Patna High Court has issued a notice today to the convicts of Bhagalpur riots, spending life imprisonment on why they shouldn’t be given death setnence for their role in the massacre.
The State Government has appealed the High Court for a tougher sentence for convicts of the Bhagalpur riots. The State Government pleaded that the life imprisonment pronounced by a local court of Bhagalpur as inadequate punishment and had filed a petition in the High Court to give them death sentence. The High Court issued a notice to this effect to the convicts asking why their punishment should not be converted into death sentence.
A bench of Justice Ghanshyam Prasad and Justice Shyam Kishore Sharma of Patna High Court issued this notice while listening the appeal filed by the state Government.
Hundreds innocent lives had lost in this case related to Bhagalpur riots and despite this the court of Bhagalpur awarded them life imprisonment, not giving death sentence, which is insufficient for their their sins, the Public Prosecutor urged.
Officer Incharge Ramchandra Singh, Ram Dev Mandal, Jai Prakash Mandal, and Kuldeep Mandal are among those five persons whom the court has issued this notice. These were convicted for massacre in area that come under Jagdishpur police station of Bhagalpur during the riots. They were sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court of Bhagalpur in 2007.
FIRs got registered on 28th and 30th October in 1989 for human slaughter on 7th July 1989. The local court had given them life imprisonment after a joint trial and from then they are in Bhagalpur jail.
Thousands of people mostly Muslims died in riots that engulfed Bhagalpur area between 22 Oct and 23 Nov 1989. 116 Muslims were massacred in Logain village for which 14 were finally sentenced in 2007.