UP: Behmai massacre's last surviving witness dies awaiting justice

KANPUR: Jantar Singh, the last surviving material witness in the Behmai massacre case, passed away on Thursday morning at a hospital in Lucknow due to prolonged illness. Jantar Singh, who was in his early 70s, had suffered a gunshot wound during the Behmai massacre case in which 21 people, mostly Thakurs, were shot dead by bandit queen Phoolan Devi and her gang on February 14, 1981.
“Jantar Singh was critically ill and was admitted to SGPGIMS, Lucknow, for treatment where he breathed his last on Thursday morning. His 40-year wait for the court verdict in the case has also ended,” said district government counsel Raju Porwal, who is conducting the Behmai trial.
Porwal added, “After complainant Rajaram’s death, Jantar Singh was pursuing of the case. However, his death would not make any impact on the case as his evidence had already been recorded by the court.”
On February 14,1981, Behmai village had shot into world limelight when Phoolan Devi and her gang had raided the village situated on the bank of river Yamuna to take revenge for her humiliation and murder of her paramour Vikram Mallah. The gang had killed around 21 villagers of Thakur community in the raid. A couple of villagers had also been injured.”
Witness Jantar Singh had also suffered gunshot injury but had survived and was the main witness of the prosecution.
“Rajaram, a villager of the same village, had lodged an FIR of the case. Rajaram used to do ‘pairvi’ in this case. After his death, Jantar Singh was doing ‘pairvi’ of the case and used to reach court on every fixed date,” Porwal said, adding, “Recently, Jantar Singh, who was a retired fourth class employee of Bhognipur tehsil, had missed some dates due to health reason. He was admitted to SGPGI this week due to some prolonged illness.”
“Around half a dozen alleged dacoits, including the main accused Phoolan Devi, have died and cases against them have been abated. One of the alleged dacoits, Posa, is in jail while accused Shaym Babu, Vishwanath and Bheekha are on bail. The case had twice reached the stage of final verdict, but judgment could not be delivered due to a technicality. Before delivering the judgement, the court had summoned the original case diary from the prosecution, but it was found to be missing,” Porwal told TOI.
Porwal said, “Though the original case diary was not traceable, a Xerox copy was on record.”
“Meanwhile, the presiding officer of the anti-dacoity court was transferred. Now, as per law and rules, the new presiding officer will have to hear the fresh arguments of the case. The arguments will likely to start soon,” he added.