Bhagalpur sentencing on July 7

PRONOUNCING JUSTICE: 116 people belonging to the minority community were killed in the riot case.

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Suhasini Haidar

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New Delhi: A Sessions Court that was supposed to sentence the 14 people convicted in the Bhagalpur riots case on Wednesday will pronounce sentences on July 7.

Additional District and Sessions Judge S N Mishra had found the accused guilty on June 18

They have been convicted for killing 116 people in the communal riots, which rocked Bhagalpur district on October 27, 1989. Six other accused have since died.

More than 200 people have so far been convicted in various cases related to the riots that claimed over one thousand lives.

However, one of the convicts identified as Jaiprakash Mandal escaped from the court soon after the judgement was pronounced.

A warrant of arrest was quickly issued by the ADJ against the escapee.

Those convicted in the case include, the then officer in-charge of Jagdishpur Police station Ramchandra Singh and village Chowkidar Thakur Paswan.

There were twenty-four accused in the case, involving the slaughter of 116 people, including women and children, at Logain village under Jagdishpur police station of the district.

The victims were killed and their bodies dumped in a mass grave on which cauliflowers were planted to camouflage it.

Of the 24 accused, six died during the trial and four never turned up. They were declared proclaimed offenders and their properties attached.

(With agency inputs)