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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court on Monday admitted a fresh petition challenging the lower court order of acquittal of the 41 accused in the Maliana massacre case in which 68 Muslims were killed in 1987.

The division bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Manish Kumar Nigam summoned the record of the lower court pertaining to the matter. Over a month ago, the lower court had acquitted the accused persons “for lack of evidence”.

The present appeal has been filed by one Rais Ahmed, a victim of the carnage. Ahmed's counsel Advocate Syed Shahnawaz Shah told Lawbeat that it is apparent in the order of the lower court that the matter was not dealt with as much seriousness as was required. 

Advocate Shah told that the trial court noted in the judgment that original copies of the postmortem of the deceased persons as well as the medical reports of the injured persons were not placed before the court and only the photocopies were on record which were not admissible as evidence. 

Advocate Shah said that the original copies of the said reports should have been called for. As per Advocate Shah, there are multiple lacunas in the trial court judgment which will be put before the high court in the course of hearing in the matter. 

In 1987, after the massacre in the Hashimpura neighbourhood of Meerut, a mob, which allegedly included the personnel of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), attacked and killed several people in Maliana, a village located about 10 km west of the centre of the town. Allegedly, PAC personnel shot dead at least 38 Muslims in their custody.

In this case, 16 former PAC personnel were sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2018 by the Delhi High Court for the “targeted killing”.

Case Title: Rais Ahmad v. State Of U.P. And 40 Others