Jehanabad (Bihar), November 15 : A district court today awarded death sentence to 10 people and life sentence to three others convicted in the case of massacre of 34 people by Maoists 17 years ago.
Jehanabad Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ-III) Ranjit Kumar Singh passed the judgement in the case in which 34 people belonging to an upper caste were killed by the outfit.
In addition, the court also slapped a fine of Rs one lakh on each of the three life convicts.
The court, which had convicted 15 persons in the case on October 27, could not pronounce the quantum of sentence of two convicts of the case - Vyas Yadav and Ganauri Yadav -- as they are absconding.
The two, who had been enlarged on bail, were supposed to surrender in the court on October 27 when it held them guilty in the massacre case.
The court had acquitted 23 others for want of evidence against them in the case.
Those who have been handed down capital punishment by the court are Bachesh Singh, Budhan Yadav, Butai Yadav, Satyendra Das, Lalan Pasi, Gopal Sah, Dwarika Paswan, Kariman Paswan, Gorai Paswan and Uma Paswan.
The three awarded life imprisonment are Arvind Yadav, Mungeshwar Yadav and Vinay Paswan.
The court also directed the state government to pay Rs five lakh as ex-gratia to the kin of each person killed in the massacre and to deposit the money with the district legal service authority, which would pay the families after identifying them.
It also ordered for payment of Rs one lakh each to those who were injured in the incident.
The Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) ultras had killed 34 persons of a particular caste on March 18, 1999 by slitting their throats after forcing them to gather near Thakurbari in Senari village which was then part of Jehanabad district and now falls in Arwal district. Seven others were injured in the incident.
A woman, Chintamani Devi, whose husband and son were among those massacred by the MCC ultras, was the complainant in the case.
The police had subsequently lodged an FIR against one Vyas Yadav alias Naresh Yadav and 500 unidentified persons.
The chargesheet was filed against 74 accused persons in 2002 and the trial was held against 56 as 18 others were absconding. The court later framed charges against 45 accused, two of whom died during pendency of the case, while five others went missing.
