3 more get death for Bara carnage

GAYA: Special TADA court judge Darogha Prasad on Wednesday awarded death penalty to three Maoists in connection with the Bara massacre in which
37 male adults, belonging to a particular land-owning caste, were killed 16 years ago on February 12, 1992, to be exact.

Though TADA has been scrapped, the special law was in force when the massacre took place. Six accused faced trial in the second round which was necessitated as they eluded police for several years. The third round of trial is also likely to take place as Kirani Yadav, another accused, has since been arrested.

Those awarded death penalty on Wednesday are Byas Kahar, Naresh Paswan and Bugal Mochi. The three other accused Tyagi Manjhi, Vijay Yadav and Madhusudan Sharma were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The capital punishment has to be approved by the Supreme Court as appeals against TADA court judgments can be made only in the apex court.

According to the case history, a large contingent of activists and leaders of the Maoist Communist Centre (the organization subsequently merged with the People's War group of Andhra Pradesh and acquired the name of CPI-Maoist) raided Bara village late in the evening, dragged the particular castemen, herded them on the eastern skirts of the village and leisurely slit their throats with sharp-edged weapons.

Earlier on June 8, 2001, the then special TADA judge, Jawahar Chaudhary, awarded death penalty to four Maoists. The convicts filed an appeal in the Supreme Court which upheld the capital punishment.
The condemned men Krishna Mochi, Veer Kunwar Paswan, Nanhe Lal Mochi and Dharmendra Singh alias Dharo Singh are currently in the Bhagalpur Central Jail, awaiting decision on their mercy petitions.
The mercy petitioners have taken the plea of their being the only breadwinners of the family, having no criminal history and "unfair trial" as neither the complainant nor the investigating officer was cross-examined.
Four other convicts, who were awarded life imprisonment in June 2001, were acquitted by the Supreme Court
Source : Times of India