Firozabad: A 90-year-old man has been sentenced to life by a Firozabad district court for the murder of 10 Dalits in Shikohabad 42 years ago. The convict Ganga Dayal was also fined Rs 55,000.
Nine other accused in the case died in the course of the long trial.
Sentencing Ganga Dayal, District Judge Harveer Singh added another 13 months to his term if he failed to pay the fine.
Justice, though served, has taken its time coming. Firozabad district government counsel Rajiv Upadhyay Priyadarshi told ThePrint that the 10 Dalits were shot dead on 30 December, 1981 in village Sadhupur, Shikohabad by Ganga Dayal and nine others.
Shikohabad at that time was a part of the Mainpuri district as Firozabad did not exist as a district before 1989. Firozabad city was part of Agra.
The police were informed of the murders by D. C. Gautam, a railway employee at the Shikohabad station.
Gautam was in turn told of the murders by Munishchandra, the leader of the Sadhupur panchayat. The report was subsequently registered in Shikohabad based on the telephonic conversation with Gautam.
The murder sparked outrage and many political leaders descended on Sadhupur, Upadhyay said. The police filed a chargesheet against the 10 accused in the Mainpuri Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court.
The case moved slowly, and in the meanwhile, the Firozabad district was established in 1989. While the matter was still being heard in the Mainpuri district court, Shikohabad and the village Sadhupur were added to the Firozabad district.
Upadhyay said the case was finally transferred to the Firozabad district court in October 2021, but by then, 9 of the 10 accused had died.
The only surviving accused, Ganga Dayal (90), of Garhi Danasahayak Shikohabad, appeared in court on 31 May, walking with the aid of a stick, and was sentenced to life in prison.
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