The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to file an appeal in a Delhi court’s order acquitting the 16 accused, all Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel, in the Hashimpura case of May 1987. The case had dragged on for 28 long years. The appeal would be filed in the Delhi High Court.
The decision to file an appeal was taken by the Samajwadi Party Government on May 8. Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh Zafaryab Jilani said instructions to file an appeal were received from the Government on May 11. “The draft of the appeal to be filed in the Delhi High Court has been sent to the State’s counsels,” Mr. Jilani told The Hindu . “We have asked the appeal to be filed on any date between May 22 and May 25,” the Additional Advocate General added.
Pressure within partyMr. Jilani said the grounds for challenging the verdict would be known only after the appeal has been filed. The ruling Samajwadi Party, which claims to espouse the cause of the Muslims, was under tremendous pressure from within the party, Muslim organizations and the kin of the victims to challenge the Delhi court’s order. Party insiders said the Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan and some Muslim MLAs favoured that an appeal should be filed in the Hashimpura case verdict. A dharna demanding justice for the victims was also planned in Delhi by Samajwadi Party supporters on May 23, informed sources in the party said.
Meanwhile, the kin of the Hashimpura victims met the Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh in Lucknow on Tuesday. Mr.Singh was presented a charter of demands by the delegation.
The killing of 42 Muslims, allegedly by the personnel of 41 Battalion of PAC on May 22, 1987, had created a furore with the Congress government headed by Bir Bahadur Singh government clearly on the mat. Communal riots had rocked several cities, including Barabanki and Meerut, in the aftermath of the unlocking of the disputed Ramjanmabhumi/Babri Masjid complex in Ayodhya on February 1, 1986.
Meerut worst hitMeerut, of all the places, was the worst hit. The city was plagued by communal violence in April 1987 and with the embers yet to die down, on May 22, 1987, 42 Muslim men and youth, mostly daily wage earners and labourers, from Hashimpura locality in Meerut, were rounded up by 19 PAC personnel and packed into a waiting police truck. The truck was taken to Gang Nahar in Muradnagar, a few kilometres way from Meerut in Ghaziabad district, where it is alleged the 42 Muslims were allegedly shot by the PAC personnel and their bodies dumped into the Hindon river.
An inquiry into the Hashimpura massacre was ordered by the U.P. Government in 1988 with the Crime Branch of CID (CB-CID) handed over the probe. On June 1, 1995, the then Government headed by Mulayam Singh, granted permission for the prosecution of the 19 accused PAC personnel. In May 2000, 16 of the 19 accused surrendered and in 2002 the case was transferred from the Ghaziabad court to the Sessions Court in Delhi following a Supreme Court order. The 16 accused were acquitted by a Delhi court on March 21, 2015.
