The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed the appeals of 15 people convicted of burning alive a Dalit man and his daughter in Haryana’s Hisar district in 2010, PTI reported. These people, who belong to the dominant Jat community, had appealed against their conviction and sentencing.
The court also convicted 20 people who had earlier been acquitted, reported The Times of India.
In April 2010, a mob of nearly 1,000 people from the Jat community in Mirchpur village burnt 18 homes in a colony of the Dalit community after a dispute. Tara Chand and his teenage daughter, who suffered from polio and could not walk without aid, were burnt to death in the incident.
A Delhi court convicted 15 of the 84 accused in the case in September 2011. Three of them were sentenced to life, five were jailed for five years, and seven were released on probation.
While hearing their appeals on Friday, the bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta said atrocities against Scheduled Castes showed no signs of abating even after 71 years of Independence. The court also asked the Haryana government to rehabilitate Dalit families who fled the village after the incident.
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