Dear friends,

Sunaina Devi, whom you can see in the photo, lost 7 members of her family in the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre of 1 December 1997, in which 58 dalits in all were slaughtered, including 27 women and 10 children. In 2010, Sunaina had breathed a sigh of some relief when, at long last, 26 of the accused were convicted by the trial court. But she got a rude shock when on October 9 this month, the Patna HC acquitted and set free each and every one of the convicted men. 

Today, Sunaina asks - Did no one kill 58 people at Laxmanpur Bathe? Did the massacres at Bathe and Bathani Tola not happen? Do the lives of the landless poor, of dalits, simply not count? How can the Patna HC declare - in case after case - that the testimony of the eyewitnesses (mostly dalit labourers) who testified aganst powerful people at risk to their lives, is false? Are dalit lives really worth only the minimum wage labourers were paid in 1997 - as is suggested by the 'compensation' ordered by the High Court? Are they not worthy at least of justice, of punishment to the killers?   

This Bathe acquittal comes on the heels of a series of similar acquittals by the Patna HC in massacres of landless poor (mostly Dalits) at Bathani Tola, Nagari Bazaar and Miyanpur, all of which had been conducted by the outlawed landlords' private army Ranveer Sena, which enjoyed political backing across the spectrum of Bihar's parties.

There has been no sustained media outcry, no relentless coverage of this horrific story, and little coverage of the protests against the verdict. 

The survivors and eyewitnesses of the massacres have filed appeals in the Supreme Court against the acquittals in the Bathani Tola and Nagari Bazaar cases, and will soon file an appeal in the Bathe case as well. We need to stand by them. We need to demand justice.

We can ask the Supreme Court to expedite the hearing by issuing non-bailable warrants against the accused, who are delaying the process by evading the notices being served to them.Every day and night of delay is a day and night spent by the survivors in fear, in terror of the socially, economically and politically powerful killers whom they dared to take to court.

We can also ask that the Supreme Court take steps to reopen the Justice Amir Das Commission set up in 1998 to probe the political patrons of the Ranveer Sena which had been wound up by the Nitish Kumar Government when it was on the point of submitting its findings.

After the Bathe massacre, then President KR Narayanan referred to it as a "national shame." If the killers who slaughtered innocents go scot free, isn't it an even greater national shame?

Let's show Sunaina that the citizens of the country do, indeed, demand to know and punish who killed her loved ones, who is guilty of the bloodbath at Bathe, Bathani and so many other villages.

Let us demand to identify and punish the powerful politicians backed the killer Sena.

Let's make our voices heard for Sunaina and other courageous people of Bathe, Bathani, Nagari, Miyanpur and so many other places, who suffered unimaginable grief and braved intimidation to identify the killers in Court - only to have their words dismissed as lies and their killers set free.         

Sincerely yours,

Kavita Krishnan, Satya Sivaraman, Prof Uma Chakravarti, and many others on behalf of Citizens for Justice for Bathani Tola