East Champaran, October 02 (HS). Second Additional District and Sessions Judge Awadhesh Kumar has found an accused guilty in a murder case and sentenced him to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000. In case of non-payment of fine, he will have to undergo additional punishment of one year.
Rameshwar Rai, resident of Bela of Piprakothi police station, was sentenced. The incident happened four and a half decades ago. In this case, Ilahi Bux Ansari, a resident of Watganj of Piprakothi police station, had lodged an FIR against one and a half dozen named and unknown people while registering case number 6/1980 at Muffasil police station. In an injured condition, he had given a statement to the police at Sadar Hospital Motihari that he used to work at Sheikh Sanaullah of Bela village. On June 21, 1980, at around five o’clock in the evening, he was feeding fodder to his cattle at his owner’s cattle shed. At the same time, 25-30 men including named people came from Watganj armed with weapons. They started vandalizing the fodder machine and other items and started fighting. During this, several rounds of bullets were also fired by those people. Due to which half a dozen people were seriously injured. At that time its owner Sheikh Sanaullah was not at Gawas. All the injured were treated at Sadar Hospital, Motihari. Where Safayatullah alias Parvez died during treatment.
The incident was done due to election rivalry. During the trial of Sessions Court 261/1983, half a dozen Additional Public Prosecutors including Additional Public Prosecutor Sudama Baitha presented 15 witnesses in the court and presented prosecution evidence. There was testimony from four people on behalf of the defense side. During the trial, gradually half a dozen accused died and the cases of many accused were separated. Among the five accused in the above case, Ramashish Sah, Jaimangal Sah, Vishwanath Rai and Rooplal Rai, the judge acquitted him due to lack of evidence. Finding the accused Rameshwar Rai guilty, the judge sentenced him.