42 years later: 90-yr-old man gets life term over killing of 10 Dalits

AGRA Forty-two years after 10 Dalit people were shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district for complaining against a higher-caste ration shop owner, a local court in Firozabad has sentenced the only surviving accused to life imprisonment. He is 90-year-old.

Nine other men who were accused of the crime died during the protracted trial. “The case was transferred to Firozabad in 2021 and was decided accordingly” said district government counsel (DGC), Rajeev Upadhyay Priyadarshi while denying to comment on delay caused in the case. “Ganga Dayal, the lone surviving accused in this case was alive on the day of judgement (May 31, 2023) and was sentenced to life imprisonment by district judge Harvir Singh,” said the DGC. The verdict was pronounced by district and sessions court in Firozabad on Wednesday. Dayal was held guilty for murder (Section 302 of the IPC) and sentenced to life imprisonment, and levied a penalty of ₹50,000. The accused was also held guilty for attempted murder (Section 307 of the IPC) and sentenced to 10 years’ in jail and a penalty of ₹5,000.

“The killings took place in Sadhupur village in the Shikohabad police station area in December 1981,” said the DGC. “The cause of enmity was a complaint lodged by a few Dalit villagers against a ration shop owner who took revenge along with nine of his associates and fired indiscriminately at these people who were cooking food in their house” said Upadhyay.

A railway official made a call to Shikohabad police station about the killings after he got information from Muni Chandra, the chief of Sadhupur village, he added. The charge sheet was filed in the Mainpuri chief judicial magistrate’s court as Shikohabad was part of the Mainpuri district at the time of the incident. After the formation of Firozabad district in 1989, Shikohabad became a part of Firozabad.

The trial continued at Mainpuri court. In 2021, it was transferred to Firozabad court, but by then nine out of 10 named accused had died, said Upadhyay. The prosecution alleged that such mass killing fell in the category of rarest of rare cases, and therefore Ganga Dayal deserved capital punishment. But the defence pleaded for a sympathetic view because of the age of the accused. Ganga Dayal, out on bail during the pendency of case, was arrested by the Firozabad police on Wednesday and was sent to jail after the court’s order. “The prosecution had proven successful in proving the presence of accused at the site of occurrence. Further the crime was established on basis of statement by eye witness” said the court order. Reacting to the sentence, Premwati (80), one of the survivors, complained that the “main accused died before case could be decided”.