New Delhi. The Supreme Court today granted bail to 8 guilty PAC soldiers in the Hashimpura massacre case in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. This horrific massacre took place in the year 1987 in which PAC soldiers were accused of taking 38 Muslims out of their homes and taking them to an unknown place and shot them dead. Not only this, his dead body was thrown into the river. The trial court, while giving its verdict in 2015, many years after the incident, acquitted all the accused due to lack of evidence. Later, in the year 2018, Delhi High Court had convicted 16 accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
SC grants bail to 8 in 1987 #Hashimpura massacre case in which 38 persons were killed by PAC personnel. pic.twitter.com/NIiUyBVlwv
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 6, 2024
The trial court’s decision was challenged by the victims’ families in the High Court. The High Court had clearly said in its order that Hashimpura massacre was murder in custody, it was target killing of minorities. Initially the investigation of this case was handed over to CBCID. CBCID had made 66 PAC personnel accused in its report. This massacre shook not only UP but the entire country, yet all kinds of negligence was done in the investigation of this case. The result was that the case continued in the court year after year and the trial court ultimately acquitted the culprits.
At present, the convicts who have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court have filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the High Court. During the hearing on the same petition today, the Supreme Court has granted bail to 8 convicts. According to the news of Dainik Bhaskar, Justice Abhay S. Senior advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, while presenting the argument before the bench of Justice Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih, said that the Delhi High Court had overturned the decision of the trial court on the basis of wrong facts, hence the people in jail should get bail.