Thirty-six years after 72 Muslims were killed during communal violence in Meerut district’s Maliana, a court in Uttar Pradesh last week acquitted 39 persons in the case, The Times of India reported.

The violence took place on May 23, 1987, when a mob, along with members of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary, surrounded the Maliana village from all sides and allegedly shot at Muslim men, women and children.

A day before, the Provincial Armed Constabulary had picked up 42 Muslim men from Hashimpura, a neighbourhood in Meerut, put them on a lorry, drove them to a nearby canal, shot all of them and then dumped their bodies in the water.

In 2016, the Delhi High Court convicted 16 members of the constabulary for their role in the Hashimpura massacre by setting aside a trial court order that had acquitted them.

On Friday, Additional District and Sessions Judge Lakhvinder Singh Sood in Meerut acquitted 39 accused in the Maliana violence, saying the prosecution could not produce sufficient evidence to convict them, additional district counsel Sachin Mohan told The Times of India.

Mohammad Yaqub, one of the survivors of the violence, had filed the original complaint against 93 people. Of these, 23 had died during the trial and the remaining 31 persons “could not be traced”.

Yaqub told The Times of India that the role of the Provincial Armed Constabulary in the killings was not even mentioned in the first information report. “I was one of those who were rounded up and mercilessly beaten as the massacre was still on in which without any provocation, the PAC men began attacking houses while the mob indulged in looting and rioting,” he added.

Allauddin Siddiqui, the lawyer representing the victims, said the 39 persons were let off at a time when proceedings were still underway.

“Hearing on the 34 postmortems had not taken place and the accused had not been examined under Section 313 of CrPC [power of court under the Code of Criminal Procedure to examine accused],” the advocate said. “We will appeal in the HC [High Court].”

However, Mohan dismissed his claims, saying that the police had put random names of 93 people from the voter list, including those who died years before the violence, in the FIR.

‘Broken our resolve to fight’

Residents of Maliana said the Meerut court verdict was a big setback. “It has broken our resolve to fight,” Yaqub told The Times of India. “The macabre dance of death occurred right in front of our eyes. Entire families were wiped out. Yet, we have to keep our faith in the judiciary. Was this carnage a figment of our imagination?”

Mahtab, a family member of one of the victims, told PTI that the judgement was not fair. He said on the day of the violence, his father Yasin was shot dead for no reason while he was returning home. His body was later found near a sugar mill.

Vakil Ahmed, one of the witnesses who had recorded his statements in court, told The Hindu that the Provincial Armed Constabulary had protected Dalits when they ransacked Muslim houses and set many of the community members on fire.

“We were living peacefully with Dalits but it seemed that they were instigated by Hindutva elements to take revenge for what happened with their mothers and daughters in other parts of the city during the riots,” he added. “Perhaps they were made to believe that Muslims would run away and they could take charge of their properties.”

The situation in Meerut in 1987 had been tense following protests against the unlocking of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya for worship by Hindus.

Also read: The Hashimpura massacre is a harsh indictment of so-called secular politics in India