Seven held guilty for lynching five Dalits in Haryana

JHAJJAR - A district court here Saturday held seven people guilty and acquitted 19 others in a case relating to the 2002 lynching of five Dalits in this Haryana district.

The punishment for the convicts will be announced Monday.

All the seven people held guilty were sent to judicial custody by Additional District and Sessions Judge A.K. Jain Saturday.

Those convicted are Om Prakash Kablana (head of Gaushala village), Shishu Pal Malik, Ranbir Malhan, Jagbir Malhan, Satbir Singh Rathi, Ramesh Surha and Sube Singh, all residents of Kaloi village in this district.

Haryana Police registered a case against 28 people following the lynching of the Dalit men at Dulina village Oct 15, 2002.

The victims, who hailed from Mewat area of Haryana, were taking a cow with them on a vehicle. Some villagers saw them and took them to a police post in Dulina village.

After a while, residents of nearby villages gathered at Dulina and the mob then started demanding that the five men be punished.

Police and district officials from Gurgaon (Jhajjar earlier was not a district) reached the place but the mob pulled the five men out of the police post and beat them to death on the road.

The court took eight years to decide the case. During this period, two of the 28 accused died.