One judge sentenced the death to death, the other Berba: Split ruling on Maoist Gull in the ruling Jharkhand HC in which 6 police were killed. Bharat News

The ruling is related to a Maoist ambush, who killed Pakur SP Amarjeet Bali and five others on July 2, 2013. The SP and their team returned from a meeting when some Maoists reduced their vehicles and shot them. Apart from the officer, five other policemen – Rajiv Kumar Sharma, Manoj Hembrom, Ashok Kumar Srivastava, Chandan Kumar Thapa, and Santosh Kumar Mandal – died.

The attack injured some others. In 2018, two accused – Praveer Murmu alias Praveer Da and Santon Busky alias Tala Da – were sentenced to death. After hearing his criminal appeal, the Division bench of the High Court gave the decision of the 197-hit on 17 July.

Separating his sentence, Justice Rongan Mukhopadhyay said an eyewitness in the case – the policemen who survived the attack – could not reliably identify the accused. He also paid attention to the lack of direct participation from the two convicts, or the lack of recovery of depressed materials.

However, Justice Prasad took a controversial approach and said that eyewitnesses had identified Praveer and Talk in the court and “fierce murder” of an IPS officer and his team “had no sympathy”.

Confirming the death sentence, Justice Prasad directed the state government to give a compensation of Rs 2 crore to the SP’s family, and give a job to one of his children in the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police or Deputy Collector. He also ordered compensation of Rs 50 lakh and grade 4 government jobs to the families of five other policemen.

Special Public Prosecutor Vineet Kumar Vashiska said that the decision of partition means that the matter will now be sent to the Chief Justice for revaluation. He said that Justice Prasad considered the case to fall under the “rare rare” category.

He said, “Now the case will be placed before the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, which will reorganize a back to rehearsed the case,” he said.