44 Years On, 3 Get Death For Killing 24 Dalits In U.P. Village

Forty-four years after the gruesome incident, the court of special judge (U.P Dacoity) in UP's Mainpuri on Tuesday awarded death sentence to three convicts in the 1981 Dehuli massacre, which saw 24 Dalits, including women and two children, being killed.

- Hemendra Chaturvedi

LUCKNOW:

Special judge Indira Singh convicted the trio, Kaptan Singh, 60, Rampal, 60, and Ram Sevak, 70 on March 11. The court pronounced the quantum of punishment on Tuesday. Apart from capital punishment, the court imposed a Rs 50,000 fine on the convicts.

Ramsevak and Kaptan Singh were convicted under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 449 (house-trespass after entering someone's house), 450 (house-trespass). Rampal was convicted under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 216 A (harbouring criminals).

Advocate Rohit Shukla, who represented the state government in court, said: "The court has awarded death sentences to Ramsewak, Kaptan Singh and Rampal. However, the case file will remain open as one convicted person Gyanchandra is still absconding." The case file is of more than 15,000 pages, he added.

A gang of 17 dacoits led by Santosh Singh alias Santosha and Radhey Shyam alias Radhey, dressed in khakis had stormed Dehuli on November 18, 1981. They targeted Dalit families, gunning down 24 people, including toddlers aged six months and two years, respectively. The original FIR named 17 accused under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 396 (dacoity with murder), among other offences of the IPC.