New Delhi, April 07, 2023 (PPI-OT): The acquittal of all 40 accused in the 1987 massacre of Muslims in Maliana in Uttar Pradesh has raised concerns over the prosecution for not following the case in a fair manner.

Thirty-six years ago, 73 Muslims were killed by Hindus along with Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel after blocking all entry and exit points of the locality. The massacre was carried out a day after the custodial killing of three dozen Muslims in Hashimpura during the Meerut riots.

On March 31, 2023, a court in UP let off all the accused for insufficient evidence. The development not only disappointed family members of the victim but also activists pursuing the case.

Qurban Ali, the former BBC journalist who had filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court for a speedy trial in the case, told media that the verdict was a “miscarriage of justice”.

“The trial went on for 36 years. The case was made very weak. FIR was filed in the case on the complaint of Yaqub Ali only to show then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi during his visit there. The accused were named after taking their names from the voter list, many of them died,” said Ali.

Ali, who as a journalist also covered the massacre and the subsequent riots, had filed the petition in the high court in 2021 complaining against the slow pace of the case’s progress.

Ali said that 93 people were named as accused. Many of them died during the course of the trial while 33 were untraced. Hence, they were not arrested. The remaining 40 accused were acquitted.

“The FIR was missing during the trial. A total of 900 hearings were held. The trial gathered pace when I filed the petition. Now, the case has been disposed of within two years after the petition was filed. I think that they want to say in the high court that now there is no case pending in the matter,” he said.

Vibhuti Narayan Rai, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh and author of a book on the Hashimpura massacre, was part of the petition. He said the acquittal was a “total failure on the part of the State”.

“The victims have been miserably failed by all the stakeholders – the police, the political leadership, a partisan press, and now the judiciary,” Rai was quoted by BBC as saying.

“Investigation has been faulty from the start and the trial was pending for three-and-a-half decades so we petitioned the high court to order a fresh investigation, hold a fair trial and pay compensation to the victims,” he added.

Ali said that the case collapsed because the prosecution did not discharge its duty properly. “They have not done what they were supposed to do. It seems they were in support of the accused,” he said.

Ali was hopeful that the culprits would get punished once the victims approach the high court. The higher court will push the prosecution to conduct a proper investigation. This has happened in the Hashimpura massacre, anti-Sikh riots and other cases, he said.

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