Patna High Court on January 4 issued a notice to the convicts of Bhagalpur riots, undergoing life imprisonment on why they shouldn’t be given death sentence for their role in the massacre.
The State Government had appealed to the High Court for a tougher sentence for convicts of the Bhagalpur riots, pleading that the life imprisonment pronounced by a local court of Bhagalpur is inadequate. A bench consisting of Justice Ghanshyam Prasad and Justice Shyam Kishore Sharma of Patna High Court issued a notice to this effect to the convicts asking why their punishment should not be enhanced to death sentence.
Hundreds of innocent lives were lost in Bhagalpur riots and despite this the Bhagalpur court awarded them life imprisonment instead of death sentence, which is insufficient for their crimes, the Public Prosecutor pleaded.
Then officer in-charge of Jagdishpur police station Ramchandra Singh, Ram Dev Mandal, Jai Prakash Mandal, and Kuldeep Mandal are among those five persons whom the court has issued this notice.
Thousands of people mostly Muslims died in riots that engulfed Bhagalpur between October 22 and November 23, 1989. One hundred sixteen Muslims were massacred in Logain village for which 14 were finally sentenced in 2007.