Hindu body appeals UP govt to move SC against conviction of PAC jawans in Hashimpura case

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha Sunday appealed to the Uttar Pradesh government to move the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court verdict, awarding life terms to 16 former jawans of the Provincial Armed Constabulary in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case.

The organisation said it would also pursue in the apex court the appeals on behalf of the PAC jawans.

At a news conference, organisation's national vice president Pandit Ashok Sharma, district spokesperson Abhishek Aggarwal and city president Bharat Rajput said the case pertained to the discharge of the official duty by the jawans.

Accordingly, the state government must go in an appeal to the apex court against the high court verdict.

Extending their support to the convicted former PAC jawans, they said the organisation too would pursue in the apex court the appeal against the high court's verdict.

In addition to this, the organisation would also send an appeal to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for a fair probe into the 1987 riots, they said, adding the appeal would be sent to the CM in his capacity as the 'mahant' of the Gorakhpur 'peeth'.

Shrama said the award of life term to the former PAC jawans was not "justice".

The Delhi High Court had Wednesday convicted 16 former policemen of committing "premeditated murders of unarmed, innocent and helpless people", and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

A bench of justices S Murlidhar and Vinod Goyal of the high court had convicted the former PAC jawans, setting aside a 2015 verdict of a Delhi sessions court, acquitting them. The trial had been shifted to Delhi on a Supreme Court order.

The high court bench had termed the case as the one of "custodial murders involving failure of official machinery".