The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to the eight Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel who were convicted by the Delhi High Court in the infamous 1987 Hashimpura massacre case.

A bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih granted bail to these eight personnel taking note of the senior advocate Amit Anand Tiwari telling the bench that the convicts were suffering incarceration since November 2018 after Delhi High Court reversed their acquittal by the trial court in the case. Appearing for the four convicts -Sami Ullah, Niranjan Lal, Mahesh Prasad, and Jaipal Singh, he told the bench that the convict appellants are in jail for over six years,

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Noting that the convicts have been undergoing imprisonment for over six years since November 2018, the bench directed that the convicts be produced before the Trial Court within a week for the execution of bail bonds.

Nearly 42 to 45 persons belonging to the Muslim community were allegedly abducted from Hashimpura in Meerut by the armed personnel of the PAC on May 22, 1987, in the wake of communal riots in Meerut. Of these, around 35 were alleged to have been subsequently killed by the PAC on that very date in the late hours and their bodies were thrown in a canal. In 2015, a trial court acquitted all the accused.

In October 2018, a High Court bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel reversed the acquittal and sentenced 16 persons to life imprisonment. The court termed the massacre “targeted killing” of unarmed and defenceless people by the police.