Seventeen years after the Senari massacre, a local court on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to 10 and life imprisonment to three convicts in the case. An erstwhile Maoist group had butchered 34 upper caste men on March 18, 1999 in the Senari village of Jehanabad district in central Bihar.
While reserving the quantum of punishment, the Jehanabad Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ-III) Ranjit Kumar Singh, earlier, on October 27, had acquitted 23 persons while convicting 15 others in the case. On Tuesday, he pronounced the punishment for 13.
The sentence of the remaining two absconding convicts, Vyas Yadav and Ganauri Yadav, will be pronounced later, the judge said.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs. one lakh on each of the three awarded life sentence: Arvind Yadav, Mungeshwar Yadav and Vinay Paswan.
Those who have been awarded the death penalty are Bacchesh Singh, Buddhan Yadav, Butai Yadav, Satendra Das, Lallan Pasi, Dwarika Paswan, Kariban Paswan, Godai Paswan, Uma Paswan and Gopal Paswan.
The court also directed the State government to pay Rs. five lakh as compensation to the family member of each of those killed in the massacre and to deposit the money with the district legal service authority which would make the payment to the families after verifying their identity.
Besides, the court directed that Rs one lakh each be paid to the seven injured in the incident.
Caste war of 1990s
In a caste war that raged in central Bihar in the 1990s, the banned Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) killed the 34 people belonging to the Bhumihar community with blunt objects at Senari village, then in Jehanabad district.
The village now falls in Arwal district which was created later for administrative convenience.
The Senari massacre drew international attention.
Meanwhile, police forces were deployed in Senari after the court pronounced punishment in the case. “It was done as a precautionary measure”, said a police official at the local police station.
