New Delhi: The prosecution failed to bring reliable material to establish the identity of culprits of the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case, leading to the release of 16 PAC personnel accused in the crime, a Delhi court has said. "The accused cannot be convicted on the basis of scanty, unreliable and faulty investigation which has gaps and holes," the court said in its March 21 judgement, the copy of which was made available on Tuesday.
It had acquitted 16 Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel for the massacre in which 35 people from a minority community were killed after being picked up from Hashimpura village in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh.
"It is very painful to observe that several innocent persons have been traumatized and their lives have been taken by the State agency, but the investigating agency as well as the prosecution have failed to bring on record the reliable material to establish the identity of culprits. The accused persons facing trial are entitled to benefit of doubts existing in the case of prosecution," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Jindal said in a 216-page judgement.
The court acquitted Suresh Chand Sharma, Niranjan Lal, Kamal Singh, Rambir Singh, Sami Ullah, Mahesh Prasad, Jaipal Singh, Ram Dhyam, Sarwan Kumar, Leela Dhar, Hambir Singh, Kunwar Pal Singh, Budha Singh, Budhi Singh, Mohkam Singh and Basant Vallabh of the charges of rioting, abduction, murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the IPC.
The judge said it was not established beyond doubts that the accused persons facing trial were the PAC officials, who had actually committed the offence. The court gave them benefit of doubt for want of evidence regarding their identity saying there was no clinching evidence on record without infirmities on the circumstance relating to identity of the truck, in which the victim were picked up, and the accused persons.
It has referred the case to Delhi State Legal Services Authority for rehabilitation of victims. According to prosecution, Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel had come to village Hashimpura on May 22, 1987, and arrested 42 persons from Hashimpura village and put them in a truck belonging to 41st battalian PAC.
Instead of taking them to police station, the PAC men took them to Murad Nagar canal and Hindon river and 42 persons were shot and thrown into the water.
As per the prosecution, 35 persons died and six were the survivors who were also the eye witnesses in the case. The eye witnesses and survivors of incident were Zulfikar Nissar, Mohd Naeem, Mohd. Usman, Muzibur Rehman and Babuddin. The judge noted that the eye witnesses when examined in court have not identified any of the accused as the culprits.
"Further that they (PAC men) were wearing helmets and were having rifles with bayonets (Sangeen). It is explained by the witnesses that it was dark at the time of incident. The explanation given by these witnesses can otherwise also be accepted as clearly they were in a horrified state of mind and the culprits were in official uniforms and it is not easy for anyone to identify the culprits," the court said.
Finding fault in the investigating agency's probe, the court also said it was not clear as to on what basis names of these 19 accused persons have been selected for prosecution. Charges were framed against 17 persons, of whom one has died. "Accused were arrested after several years of the incident but the basis for such arrest has not been explained during trial. There are no disclosure statements or recoveries effected from any of the accused.
"No weapon of offence has been connected with any of the accused. No record of arms and ammunition has been proved during trial despite the fact that the accused are members of armed force where each and every arms and ammunition is issued against record," it said.
The court said since there was lack of direct evidence against the accused, the case has virtually converted into a case of circumstantial evidence against the accused despite the fact that there are several eye witnesses to the whole incident. "Most of the basic facts except the identity of the culprits have been duly proved and established on record as discussed above but the evidence required to connect the accused persons with the crime is actually missing," it said.
All the 16 accused, who have been acquitted and were out on bail, were Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel at the time of the incident. The chargesheet was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Ghaziabad, in 1996.
19 people were named as accused and charges for offences of murder, attempt to murder, tampering with evidence and conspiracy were framed against 17 of them by the court here in 2006, after the case was transferred to Delhi on a Supreme Court direction in September 2002. The CB-CID of Uttar Pradesh police, which probed the case, had listed 161 people as witnesses.
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