A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday admitted the criminal appeal of the alleged victims of Maliana violence in which at least 72 Muslims lost their lives in Meerut in May 1987.
The High Court has issued notice to the parties concerned and summoned lower court records. The appeal was filed by Vakeel Ahmad, Mohd. Yakub and Ismail Khan against the acquittal order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge on March 31 this year at Meerut in sessions trial of State versus Kailash Bharti and others, arising out of case crime No. 136 of 1987 under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 302, 395, 397, 436 of the Indian Penal Code registered in the T.P. Nagar police station of Meerut.
Describing it as a positive development, counsel for the victims Mohd. Danish said that after the State didn’t appeal against the sessions court order, wherein it acquitted all the 39 accused, the victims and their family members decided to appeal against the order. “While Vakil Ahmad and Yakub are witnesses in the case whose testimonies have been recorded in the lower court, Ismail Khan allegedly lost 11 members of his family in the violence. He survived because he was out of town on the day of violence.”
