Court convicts 15 in 1999 Senari massacre case

Patna: Seventeen years after the massacre of 34 villagers allegedly by an armed squad of outlawed Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in Senari village of Bihar's Jehanabad district, a trial court on Thursday convicted 15 accused.

The court of Jehanabad additional district and sessions judge-III Ranjeet Kumar Singh, however, acquitted 23 other accused for lack of evidence. It has fixed November 15 to pronounce the quantum of punishment for the 15 convicts.

The carnage took place on the night of March 18, 1999 when the left extremists dragged 34 people belonging to a particular upper caste out of their homes to a temple and slit their throats.

According to the prosecution, at least 1,000 armed Maoists surrounded the village and made the villagers captive. "The killings started around 7.30pm and continued till 10pm after which the Maoists fled," public prosecutor (

PP

)

Surendra Prasad Singh

told this reporter over the phone from Jehanabad, 50km from Patna.

An FIR in this connection was lodged in

Karpi

police station on the basis of the statement of one Chintamani

Devi

who lost her son and husband in the massacre.

The PP said charges were framed against 45 accused on May 15, 2002. Five of them are still absconding while two died during the trial, he said.

Bihar's countryside saw a series of carnages in the 1980s and 1990s with the Maoists and the landed gentry taking on each other. At least 34 scheduled caste people and 42 upper caste villagers were killed in the five massacres that took place in neighbouring Jehanabad and Gaya districts in 1999 alone.

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