Bara massacre
At midnight on 12–13 February 1992, the Maoist Communist Centre of India (now the Communist Party of India (Maoist)) brutally killed 40 Bhumihars at Bara Village near Gaya District of Bihar, India.[1][2] The MCC's armed group brought the 35 men of Bara village to the bank of a nearby canal, tied their hands and slit their throats.[1][2] As many as 36 people were accused of the crime, but charges were framed against only 13. The police failed to arrest the others, who had defied their summons.[1][2]
| Bara Massacre[3][4] | |
|---|---|
| Part of Caste wars of Bihar | |
| Date | February 1992 |
| Deaths | 35-40 killed |
| Victims | Bhumihars |
| Perpetrators | Maoist Communist Centre unit containing Schedule Castes and OBC |
Trigger
The massacre which targeted primarily upper caste Bhumihars, was thought to be a deleterious consequence of the social justice politics in the Bihar of 1990s unleashed by Lalu Prasad Yadav. According to an India Today report, the Yadav leaders were openly preaching vendetta against the Bhumihars after the "Barsingha massacre" in which ten Dalits were killed by "Swarna Liberation Front", a caste army of Bhumihar landlords.The Congress leaders claimed that the MCC, though composed primarily of Dalits, has linkages to Janata Dal and Yadavs.[4] According to a report of Indian Express:-
"The Bara massacre, in which MCC (now CPI-Maoist) members killed 34 Bhumihars, was part of a string of caste clashes in the area. The 1992 massacre itself was believed to be the fallout of six previous killings in 1990-91 in which 59 Scheduled Caste men and agricultural labourers were killed."[5]
The upper caste retaliated after the ghastly killing and killed 58 Dalits in "Laxmanpur Bathe".[5]
Trial and aftermath
After a prolonged trial, nine people were convicted by the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Gaya, Jawaharlal Chaudhary, in its judgment and order dated 8 June 2001.[1][2] The court handed down death sentences to Nanhe Lal Mochi, Krishna Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh, life sentences to Bihari Manjhi, Ramavtar Dussadh, Rajendra Paswan and Vakil Yadav, and imprisonment to Rabindra Singh.[1][2] The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentences on 15 April 2002.[1][2]
In further trials Gaya District and Sessions Judge Daroga Prasad designated the special TADA judge, pronounced Vyas Kahar, Naresh Paswan and Yugal Mochi of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) guilty of involvement and were to death.[1][2] The court acquitted Tyagi Mahto, Vijay Yadav and Madhusudan Sharma, on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.[1][2] The four convicts who were commuted to the death sentence, Krishna Mochi, Nanhe Lal Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh were later awarded mercy by President Pranab Mukherjee on 1 January 2017.[3]
References
- PTI (Press Trust of India) (11 February 2009). "Death sentence for three Naxals in Bara massacre case". The Times of India. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
- Zee News (11 February 2009). "Death sentence for three Naxals in Bara massacre case". Zee. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
- "president-pranab-mukerjee-clears-all-32-mercy-petitions-pending". huffingtonpost. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- Ahmed, Farzand. "caste-wars-acquire-new-dimension-in-bihar-with-massacre-of-37-bhumihars". India Today . Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- Singh, Santosh. "Bara massacre-after-15-years-on-death-row-families-of-accused-say-theyve-lost-track-of-their-cases". Indian Express. Retrieved 12 August 2020.