Senari massacre of Bihar

In news- Recently, the Supreme Court of India admitted Bihar government’s appeal against acquittal of 13 people in Senari massacre case.

About Senari massacre –

This incident took place on March 18, 1999 where 34 upper caste men were forced out of their homes in Senari village of Jehanabad district allegedly by cadres of the now defunct Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), and slaughtered near the village temple.
It was said that the Maoist organisation perpetrated the massacre allegedly to take revenge for the Ranvir Sena, a private army of upper-caste people, allegedly killing 56 Dalits at Laxmanpur Bathe in 1996 and 23 more at Shankarbigha in 1999.
The upper caste villagers, especially the Ranbir Sena led by Barmeshwar Mukhiya who was sent to jail in 2012.
The Senari massacre saw the killing of the largest number of upper caste victims (34) after the Dalelchak-Bhagora massacre of Aurangabad in 1987, in which 42 upper caste people including 21 of a single family were killed.
In 2016, a Jehanabad court sentenced 11 accused to death, and awarded the life sentence to three others. Three of those convicted challenged the verdict in the High Court.
In May 2021, the Patna High Court acquitted 13 accused persons in the Senari massacre case.
A Division Bench of Justices Ashwini Kumar Singh and Arvind Srivastava reversed the lower court’s verdict, citing lack of sufficient corroborative evidence.