Five Maoists sentenced to death by Munger court in Bihar

May 29, 2017 12:45 IST

Press Trust of India, Munger 

A Munger court on Thursday awarded death sentence to five Maoists after convicting them of murder of two CRPF jawans in an ambush during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar.

Additional sessions judge (I) Jyoti Swarup Srivastava also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on each of the convicts - Vipin Mandal, Adhiklal Pandit, Ratu Koda, Wano Koda and Manu Koda. According to the prosecution, about 50 Maoists ambushed a vehicle carrying CRPF jawans on the Gangta-Lakshmipur road under Kharagapur police station area, killing two jawans and injuring 10 others, in April 2014. The slain jawans were Som Gawda and Ravindra Rai.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/five-maoists-sentenced-to-death-by-munger-court-in-bihar/story-7jiXhawMYDIcRG8l7KKDhJ.html (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Bihar death row convicts’ families fear the worst

GAYA (BIHAR):, JANUARY 25, 2014 03:06 IST

UPDATED: MAY 13, 2016 12:20 IST

Rahi Gaikwad

For the family of death row convict Krishna Mochi, time has lost its value. Mochi was arrested and jailed in the Bara massacre case of 1992. He never got bail. Ten years have passed since he sent a mercy plea to the President, but he has not heard anything since. After 22 years of his absence, the family ascribes little value to the possibility of his death sentence getting commuted. “My father never speaks of being released. He only says there is no update, nothing is happening,” Mochi’s son Ajay said. Mochi along with three others, Nanhe Lal Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh alias Dharu Singh were in 2001 awarded capital punishment by a sessions court in connection with the massacre of 35 Bhumihars (a landed caste) by the Maoist Communist Centre.

They were tried under the provisions of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2002, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty by a majority of 2:1, in a three-judge bench. Justice M.B. Shah differed from the majority view. He acquitted Singh and commuted the death sentences of the other three to life. All the four convicts have been lodged at the Bhagalpur Central Jail. The jail authorities told The Hindu that their mercy plea was dispatched from the jail on March 3, 2003. Since then there has been no word on their petitions. “The SC confirmed the death sentences of the four convicts. They filed their petitions with the President in 2003. They are pending since then,” KP Pingwa, superintendent of the Bhagalpur Central Jail told The Hindu.

 Family of death row convict Krishna Mochi

Mochi’s family meets him in jail once or twice a year. The yearly visit is a three-day affair and entails an expenditure of Rs. 600 – a steep sum for them. A year and a half ago, Mochi was operated for appendicitis. He is now slated to undergo a cataract surgery. “If we have money, we go to meet him,” Ajay said. “Having spent so many years in jail, what death sentence are we talking about now? It’s high time he should be released,” Mochi’s wife Chandramani said. At Dharu Singh’s house, his wife Lalita Devi and mother Devrani Devi appear broken. “He has been in jail since 1999. He says his petition is pending with the President. We are hopeful that something will happen, but nothing as yet has. We hear the President has no pending petitions. Can’t they release him? This is a house without a man; no one wants to marry my daughter,” Lalita Devi said.

Lacking the means to engage legal help, the families are clueless about the petitions. They also believe the death penalties have been commuted to life. “Father said in 2011 that ‘ Phansi kat gaya [death sentence was commuted].’ But what has happened after that we do not know,” Arun Paswan, son of Bir Kuer Paswan said. The jail authorities denied any such development. The recent landmark judgment of the apex court could raise the convicts’ hopes. The court overturned an earlier judgment which drew a distinction between murders related to terrorism and others. But, confusion abounds on the status of their mercy pleas. While the jail officials claimed they are pending with the President, the Ministry of Home Affairs denied any knowledge of them. On the other hand, Bihar’s Principle Secretary, Home, Amir Subhani, said the State government had “no role to play” in the matter of forwarding their petitions.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bihar-death-row-convicts-families-fear-the-worst/article5615430.ece (Accessed on 18 December 2018)

Govt lost mercy petition of 4 Maoist convicts on death row

Updated: Jul 31, 2015 00:14 IST

First Published: Jul 31, 2015 00:11 IST

Four death row convicts in Bihar have been waiting for a decision on their mercy petition for more than a decade because their plea to be spared the gallows was lost somewhere in Delhi.

Four death row convicts in Bihar have been waiting for a decision on their mercy petition for more than a decade because their plea to be spared the gallows was lost somewhere in Delhi. The four Maoist Communist Centre cadre had been sentenced to death by a TADA court in 2001 for the Bara massacre in Bihar’s Gaya district. Bir Krishna Mochi, Nanhe Lal, Birkuer Paswan and Dharam were convicted for being part of the group that killed 35 people from the Bhumihar community on 13 February 1992.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence by a 2-1 majority in 2002, with the dissenting judge, Justice MB Shah – who now heads the special investigative team on black money – unconvinced about their guilt. A mercy petition filed by them in 2003 initially shuttled between different departments of the Bihar government before it was sent to the Centre on July 7, 2004. And then, everyone forgot about the mercy petition.

It was only last year that human rights activist Suhas Chakma figured someone had lost the petition. “We noticed that neither the Home ministry nor Rashtrapati Bhavan seemed to have any record of this mercy petition but the Bihar government insisted it had been sent,” Chakma, who heads the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), said. “This is exactly the kind of a case that former president APJ Abdul Kalam would have had in mind when he worried that only the poor and downtrodden ended up in the death row,” he added, contrasting the government’s lackadaisical approach with the super-sonic speed with which Yakub Memon’s mercy petition was cleared in just about a week.

At the National Human Rights Commission that is hearing Chakma’s request for its help to spare the four men from the gallows, the Bihar government last November told the panel that they had sent another copy of the petitions to the home ministry. Chakma said there were several cases where the Supreme Court had commuted death sentence because of a three year delay in processing the mercy petitions. In this case, the delay exceeds 12 years, he said.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/govt-lost-mercy-petition-of-4-maoist-convicts-on-death-row/story-wbh5p0An1ulPixzsJNUptN.html (Accessed on 18 December 2018)

Bihar: Four suspected Maoists get death sentence in murder case

Press Trust of India  |  Sheohar (Bihar)  March 30, 2015 Last Updated at 21:13 IST

A court in Bihar's Sheohar district today awarded death sentence to four suspected Maoists convicted in the murderof five people in an attack at a village in Bihar's Sheohar district five years ago. 

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sampoornand Tiwari sentenced to death Ugan Ram Atkoni, Hamid Ansari, Santosh Sah and Bhagirath Sah, suspected Maoists, after finding them guilty in the murder of five people Raman Village on May 11, 2010. 

The victims - Mukesh Rai, father Siyaram Rai, uncle Sribhagwan Rai, Manohar Thakur and Vishwat Thakur - were hacked to death, Public Prosecutor Shalendra said. 

Subodh Kumar, now a mukhiya of Rohua panchayat, had lodged an FIR after the attack.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/four-suspected-maoists-get-death-sentence-in-murder-case-115033000942_1.html  [last accessed 09 April 2015]