Anti-dacoity court set to hear final arguments in Behmai case on Aug 24

Kanpur: The famous Behmai massacre trial has once again hogged the limelight after the anti-dacoity court of Kanpur Dehat on Thursday fixed August 24 for hearing the final arguments.
The case had been fixed for judgement by judicial official Sudheer Kumar two times in the year 2019, but due to some technical issues raised by the defence counsels, the final verdict was postponed.Thereafter, due to Covid-19 pandemic, hearing could not take place and only general dates were being fixed in the trial.
District government counsel (criminal) Rajiv Porwal, talking to TOI on Friday stated that the last date in the trial was August 19, 2021 and the defence counsel had put up a demand that copies of the case be provided to him.
Porwal strongly opposed the move and said that the police had filed a chargesheet in this case on May 22, 1981 and thereafter as per procedure of CrPC, copies were provided to the accused.
He further argued that the prosecution had commenced the trial in 2012 and had produced as many as 15 witnesses in this case. All were cross-examined by the defence counsel. Later, they argued before the predecessor judicial official of this court in the argument stage. Therefore, demand for copies was infructuous and it was a delaying tactic. Special judge Sudhakar Rai thereafter rejected the submission of the defence and fixed the date for final argument.
The district government counsel (DGC) said that the case had reached the stage of judgement in 2019, but the CrPC states that a judge should deliver the judgement within 14 days after hearing the final arguments. Also, the second aspect was that the judicial official had been changed. Therefore, the case was once again fixed for final argument.
When the DGC was asked that last time when the case was fixed for judgement the defence had raised the issue of case diary and had claimed that it had been lost and hence the judgment could not be delivered, he replied that he had pointed out that the case file had been sent to the Supreme Court and as per practice, a photocopy of the file including case diary was made and kept secured.
“However, the original case diary is missing but is not lost. I had moved an application in this regard and the court had ordered the reader to investigate the matter and he had reported that a copy of the case diary was in the court file,” he added.
The IG police too had made an inquiry in this matter and it was found that the case diary was filed in the court and thereafter it was misplaced, perhaps in transaction to the high court or Apex Court, Porwal said.
“I am ready for final arguments and try my best to get a verdict in this 40-year-old case,” he added.
Bandit queen Phoolan Devi along with more than a dozen dacoits had raided the Behmai village on February 14, 1981, and gunned down 20 men of the village to take revenge for her humiliation.