LUCKNOW: Allahabad High Court has summoned the records of Meerut’s lower court, related to the acquittal of 41 persons accused in the Maliana massacre case which had taken place in Meerut district in 1987. In the massacre, around 68 Muslims were killed by a mob, including the personnel of UP Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC).
The case has been posted for the next hearing on August 14. hearing a criminal appeal filed by one Rais Ahmad, a survivor of the incident, the division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Manish Kumar Nigam observed, “Summon the lower court record. list this case on August 14, 2023.”
Rais had challenged the verdict of the Meerut sessions court which had acquitted all 41 accused of the massacre for want of evidence. After a gap of 36 years and 800 hearings, the Meerut sessions court acquitted all 41 accused on March 31, this year. The other 40 people named as accused in the FIR
died during the trial.
Maliyana is a village located about 10 km west of the centre of Meerut town. It had a population of 35,000, including about 5,000 Muslims who lived close to each other at the time of the incident. The Maliyana killings took place a day after the massacre in the Hashimpura neighbourhood of Meerut town, in which PAC personnel had shot dead at least 38 Muslims in their custody.
In October 2018, the Delhi HC sentenced 16 former PAC personnel to life imprisonment for the “targeted killing”. The massacres took place when communal tempers were running high due to the reopening of the locks of Ayodhya in February 1986.