Behmai massacre verdict deferred again as case diary not traced - Hindustan Times
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Behmai massacre verdict deferred again as case diary not traced

ByHT Correspondent, Lucknow
Feb 26, 2020 08:23 PM IST

The verdict in the Behmai massacre case, in which 20 people were killed allegedly by Phoolan Devi’s gang in 1981, was again deferred on Wednesday after the police apprised the special court (UP dacoity-affected area) in Kanpur that the original case diary had not been traced.

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Special judge Sanjiv Singh directed the director general of police (DGP) to furnish the case diary by March 18, the next date of hearing.

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District government counsel (DGC) Raju Porwal said the court had sought a copy of the case diary and the inquiry report from DGP and the government.

Porwal said district police chief, Anurag Vats, had stated in his reply to the court that the original case diary could not be traced despite all efforts.

The trial in one of most-talked-about cases was completed on December 17, 2018, and the court had fixed January 6 for the verdict. But the lawyers of the five accused asked the court for some more time to file certain citations of high court and the Supreme Court.

A group of bandits, allegedly led by the late Phoolan Devi, killed 20 people in Behmai on February 14, 1981.

The trial in the case started in 2012 and that, too, against five of 28 accused.

The five accused are Posa, Bheekha, Vishwanath alias Putani, Shyam Babu and Ram Singh. Posa and Bheekha were arrested in 2017.

While 17 of the accused have died of natural causes and in police encounters, the prime accused in the case, Phoolan Devi, was killed in 2001 at her house in New Delhi. She had become an MP from Mirzapur after her release from jail in 1994.

Five other accused, including her allegedly right- hand man Maan Singh, have not been arrested yet.

Earlier, the special judge had pulled up a court official after noticing the absence of the original CD on January 18.

The court had postponed the case from January 24 to January 30 and then to February 12 as the case diary could not be traced.

(WITH PTI INPUTS)

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