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HC acquits 4 in ’07 carnage by Chandrajit Mukherjee

Citing lack of evidence, Jharkhand High Court today acquitted four alleged Maoists, sentenced to death for opening fire on spectators of a football match in Giridih in October 2007 and killing Babulal Marandi’s son and 18 others.

A division bench of Justices R.K. Merathia and P.P. Bhatt heard the appeals filed by accused Jeetan Marandi, Manoj Rajwar, Anil Ram and Chhatrapti Mandal and gave them the “benefit of doubt” after citing “lack of evidence” on the part of the prosecution to confirm the death sentence imposed by Giridih sessions judge I Indra Deo on June 22.

Terming it among “rarest of rare cases”, the Giridih judge had convicted the four accused of murder, theft, unlawful assembly and conspiracy under various sections of the Arms Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act and imposed a death penalty after a three-year-long trial in which more than 20 witnesses, including 10 of the 12 injured in the firing, were cross-examined.

But, today the high court observed that the prosecution had failed to bring about a strong case against Jeetan Marandi and the others, apparently convinced by their lawyers’ arguments that no witness identification parade was conducted and that eyewitness accounts could not be deemed to be accurate given the mad scramble that followed at Chilkhari after the October 26, 2007, firing.

Babulal Marandi’s party, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, had organised a football match at the village under Giridih’s Deori police station, which was to be followed by a prize distribution ceremony and a cultural programme.

Nunu Lal Marandi, the younger brother of the JVM supremo, was the chief guest. Both Nunu Lal and Babulal’s son, Anup, were seated in the first row along with a crowd of over 4,000 people.

During the programme, a group of about 30 to 40 armed extremists, posing as CRPF personnel, appeared in front of the stage suddenly. One of them grabbed a mike and called out for Nunu Lal.

Almost immediately, the rebels started firing indiscriminately. While Nunu Lal was lucky not to have been hit, Anup fell prey to the rebel bullets.

Later, a case was registered on the basis of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen Jeetan and his accomplices. The prosecution examined 22 witnesses and produced more than 50 exhibits to bolster the case. Jeetan and his accomplices were arrested and taken into custody after the police launched a manhunt.

In the high court, counsels for the accused argued that although there were six eyewitnesses, none of them possessed an entry ticket for the match and the cultural programme. Therefore, in the absence of a valid ticket, their very presence at the venue was doubtful and hence, their version of the events that followed could not be relied upon, argued Jeetan’s counsel Krishna Murari.

Senior advocates P.P.N. Rai and B.M. Tripathy, appearing for the other three accused, also said that no test identification parade had been done by the prosecution to enable witnesses to confirm the identities of the accused.

The eyewitnesses, however, identified the accused in court during trial, which was not acceptable in law, the counsels argued. Also, given that people ran helter-skelter after the firing, it was difficult to believe that the witnesses could have heard the names of the accused.

After considering all aspects of the case, the bench observed that the prosecution had failed to present a strong case against Jeetan and the accused. In the absence of cogent evidence, the bench reverted the death sentences to acquittal and ordered them to be released from jail immediately.

Babulal Marandi, who had called for the accused to be pardoned after the Giridih court’s death sentence, however, refused to comment on the high court order.

The former chief minister said the state government should order a probe to find out the real criminals. “But, I leave it to the discretion of the state government.”