By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Bhagalpur : The court has convicted 14 people out of 24 in the incident of communal riot of Bhagalpur in 1989 in which 116 Muslims were killed and buried under ground in a field and vegetable cultivated on that ground, in a small village Logai village. The court has fixed 27th June for the sentencing.
While hearing the case number 849/91 Additional and session judge Shambhunath Mishra convicted 14 people including Officer Incharge and Chaukidar of Logai village Police Station for massacre under articles 147/302/345/205A/201/436/153/208 of Indian Panel Code (IPC).
Total 24 persons were charged in this case out of which 6 persons have died whereas 4 were declared by the court as fugitive. This case was filed by Md. Afroz and Thakur Das on the basis of an FIR of Jagdishpur police station.
According to sources present in the court, Justice Mishra ordered to produce records of Logai village violence after hearing some bail petitions in his court. The court asked bailiff that all accused have turned up in this case?
The bailiff answered that all 13 had register their presence and the presence of one was presented by his advocate. The court then ordered to call all accused in the court immediately whereas 2 came late nearly half an hour.
At that time the court was deserted. Justice Mishra said to the defence lawyer that he will wait. As soon as the clock on wall of the court showed 12 at noon the court declared that all 14 persons were involved in this massacre and directed to take them in judicial custody.
Canceling the advocate's presence of one of the accused Jai Prakash Mandal, the court has issued a regular warrant against him.
The incident of Logai village was very brutal in Bhagalpur communal violence in which 116 persons were killed. This incident occurred at 8 am on 27th October 1989. The FIR was lodged two times in this regard. All dead bodies were buried in a field.
99 bodies were recovered from that field whereas a total of 116 bodies were recovered from that village. All bodies were decomposed badly and doctors were called in the village itself for postmortem.
Special Deputy Collector (relief) A.K. Singh when approached the relief camp in Babura Village of Jagdishpur Police Station two months after the incident. There he learned about the massacre.
Azraf Ali of Logai village managed to escape from there and reached that relief camp. He told everything to Mr Singh. Mr Singh went to Logai village and saw the bloody.
According to public prosecutor Md Qamar-ur-Rahman, Mr Singh has given his report to the Commissioner after reaching the head quarter. The Commissioner send A. S. Mathew, an IAS Officer to the Logai village for investigation. Official formalities delayed Mr. Mathew's departure by two days.
In the mean time Inspector Ram Chandra Singh with the help of the villagers buried the dead bodies after picking them from a well.
Regional I.G. had given the responsibility of the probe to D.I.G. Ajeet Dutta to investigate this matter. His investigations lead to the bodies buried in the field.
A huge gathering was there outside the court for the decision. Many police officers and State Auxilary Police (SAP) were present there as well.
Mr Salahuddin Khan was the Government pleader and Sachidanand Singh was the defence lawyer for this case.