Gaya (Bihar): After a prolonged trial of three decades, Kirani Yadav, one of the accused in the Bara massacre, will be sentenced today. Yadav was pronounced guilty of involvement in this massacre by the court on Feb. 26. The District and Sessions Court who held him guilty adjourned the case to hearing on March 2, 2023 for sentencing.
Naxalite Kirani Yadav was accused of killing 35 people on Feb. 12, 1992. Police sources said the court had convicted the Naxalite in this massacre case on Feb. 26 based on the evidences presented by the prosecution during the trial. The court will decide on the punishment for Kirani Yadav for murdering 35 people whose throats were almost 31 years ago.
Advocate Prabhat Kumar, the special public prosecutor, represented the prosecution. Advocates Tariq Ali and Surendra Narayan appeared on behalf of the accused. Gaya District and Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar Tiwari will briefly hear the arguments on the quantum of punishment to be Kirani Yadav before he awards the sentence.
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The Bara massacre which targeted primarily upper caste Bhumihars took place in 1992 in Bihar at midnight on Feb. 12, 1992. The villagers were taken hostage. The armed Maoists brought 35 men from the Bara village to the banks of a canal, tied their hands, and slit their throats. Several houses were set on fire. This case was registered in the Tikari police station of the district and has been on trial.
The killings in Bara village near Gaya, Bihar, were carried out by suspected members of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) which has now been rechristened as CPI-Maoist. This was one of the several caste killings reported in the neighbourhood beginning from the 1990s.
The 1992 massacre followed a spate of killings of 59 Scheduled Caste men in different incidents. An infamous attack was reported in 1997. The upper caste militia, Ranvir Sena, reportedly carried out a ‘revenge massacre’ for Bara. As many as 58 Dalits were killed in Laxmanpur Bathe, which came to be known as the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre.
