Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The acquittal of all the accused in the Laxmanpur Bathe case by a division bench of the Patna High Court is an unacceptable judgment. The lower court had sentenced sixteen of the accused to death and given life sentence to ten others. To now give them the “benefit of doubt” when there is no doubt that fifty eight dalits were massacred in the village raises questions about the verdict.
Is it just a coincidence that in other such cases also where dalits have been killed by upper caste private armies the accused have been acquitted?
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that the Bihar State Government appeal without delay against this flawed judgment.
It also reiterates its earlier demand to appeal against the judgment of the Patna High Court which had acquitted Pappu Yadav in the murder of CPI(M) MLA, Ajit Sarkar, even though he was found guilty by the lower court.