New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday convicted 20 people who were acquitted in a 2010 Dalit killing case in Haryana's Hisar district. The court also dismissed the appeal of 15 accused in the case.
A bench headed by Justice Muralidhar made strong remarks against the "planned attack" made by the Jat community against the Valmiki community during the incident that led to the eventual displacement of 254 Dalit families from Mirchpur village. "Jat community deliberately attacked the people of Valmiki community," noted the High Court.
Fifteen people were convicted and 82 acquitted by a Sessions Court in 2011 in the Mirchpur killing case, in which a physically challenged girl and her septuagenarian Dalit father were charred to death.
In the shocking incident of caste violence that rocked Haryana on April 21, 2010, a mob belonging to the dominant Jat community had also burnt down 18 Dalit houses.
The court, however, didn't say the 15 others it didn't acquit were 'guilty'.
Three of the 15 were convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The mob had set fire to the house in which Tara Chand and his daughter Suman had taken refuge. Six people have been held guilty of setting other Dalit houses on fire and six others have been convicted for unlawful assembly and stone-pelting.
The Supreme Court had in 2010 ordered shifting of the case from Haryana to Delhi following apprehensions whether a fair trial would be conducted in the neighbouring state. There was also fear for the safety of witnesses and lawyers appearing in the case.
A total of 68 prosecution witnesses including Tara Chand's wife, 44 defence witnesses, and one court witness — son of Tara Chand whom neither the prosecution nor the defence wanted to rely on — were examined.
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