17 cops sentenced to life for Karhana massacre

Basti, Nov 23 (UNI) A local court today sentenced to life 17 policemen, including two former police station officers, in the infamous two decades old Karhana massacre case here.

Fast Track Court (III) judge Devi Shankar Srivastava handed over life terms to 17 of the 25 accused, besides Rs 15,000 fine each.

While, five accused died natural deaths during the trial, three others were acquitted by court for lack of evidence.

On July 20, 1986, 11 people were gunned down by policemen at Karhana village in Mehndawal area, which the cops later termed as an encounter with the dacoits.

The convicted cops include former Dudhara SO Prem Kumar Rai and Mehndawal SO Ramkrishna Yadav, besides sub inspector (SI) Nand Kishore Rai, SI Yogendra Singh, SI Ram Narayan Yadav, head constable Heera Yadav, and constables Mahanth Singh, Laxmi Narain Yadav, Ram Sumang Yadav, Onkarnath Tiwari, Sriram Yadav, Jeet Bahadur Singh, Ram Achal Ojha, Gama Yadav, Avdhesh Kumar Singh, Ram Suresh Singh and Vindhyachal.

If the 17 lifers fail to deposit the Rs 15,000 fine each, they will have to undergo an additional jail term of six months each.

During the trial period, police circle officer Narain Saran Saraswat, SI Surendra Pratap Singh, constables Chhote Lal, Shobh Nath and Chandrabhan Pandey died.

Meanwhile, Balram Yadav, Ram Sarik and Jagannath Pandey were acquitted for lack of evidence.

UNI XC-VS SHB DB1854