Supreme Court directs magisterial probe into Mirchpur Dalit case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a magisterial probe into allegations that victims of Mirchpur Dalit violence were being targeted by those accused of killing an elderly Dalit and his daughter in the village.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly asked the chief judicial magistrate of Hisar district to conduct the enquiry and submit the report within two weeks.

The bench passed the order on an application by the victims and their lawyers alleging that they are being targeted by the accused persons.

On April 21 last year, a Dalit man and his physically challenged daughter were burnt alive in violence against the community allegedly by members of an upper caste, forcing about 150 families to flee Mirchpur village in Hisar.

Demanding a fresh probe into the Dalit killings, upper caste people of Mirchpur and other adjoining villages in Hisar district had brought rail and road traffic to Delhi via Jind to a grinding halt in March this year.

Earlier, the apex court had asked the Haryana government to identify the persons and organisation responsible for holding demonstration in December last year against booking of some upper caste people in connection with the killings.

The bench had also directed the government and the Railway Board to spell out steps taken by them to recover financial loss caused following the 11-day stir organised by 12 'khap' panchayats.

A Delhi court had on January 9 directed the Haryana government to move all the 98 accused from Hisar jail to Tihar prison since their trial was transferred to a court in Delhi following a Supreme Court order.