By IANS,
New Delhi : In a blow to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, the Supreme Court Wednesday transferred the trail of those accused of attacking Dalits in Haryana to New Delhi.
The court said the transfer was necessary in the interest of free and fair trial. The ruling was given by judges G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly.
The court had Tuesday indicated that the trial in the Mirchpur case, in which people from the dominant caste attacked Dalits of the village, could be transferred outside Haryana.
On April 21, Dalit houses in the village belonging to the Valmiki community were attacked and burnt, killing a 70-year-old man, Tara Chand, and his disabled daughter Suman.
This led to the exodus of the Valmikis from the village to different parts of the state and the national capital.
On the Supreme Court’s intervention, the state police acted against the attackers and arrested 52 people.
The apex court Tuesday said it had got a report from the additional sessions judge of Hissar that witnesses were being coerced to turn hostile and that even lawyers appearing for the victims were insecure.