Ghaziabad, November 5
A local court today sentenced to life Mukesh Sharma, the prime accused, and nine others in the Safdar Hashmi murder case, 14 years after the prominent theatre personality and CPM leader was done to death in broad daylight for staging a play against corruption in 1989 at Jhandapur in Sahibadad.
Besides Mukesh, Additional District Sessions Judge C.D. Rai sentenced Devi Sharan, Jitendra, Ramavtar, Vinod, Yunus, Tahir, Ramesh, Suresh and Karan Singh for brutally killing Safdar Hashmi and Ram Bahadur, a labourer, on January 1, 1989.
The judge also ordered a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the widows of Safdar Hashmi and Ram Bahadur, to be paid from the fine imposed by the court on the convicts.
While pronouncing the order, the judge observed: ‘’Valuable lives were wasted in the incident. It is a case of political vendetta and if the criminals were not punished, the hatred in society would continue.’’
However, Dr Rai did not impose capital punishment, saying it was “not the rarest of the rare case.”
The accused were held guilty under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with murder, arson and rioting.
Two of 12 people — Sarjit and Lakhiram — originally accused in the case, had died during the proceedings.
The court had yesterday convicted the 10 after examining 24 witnesses in the long-drawn trial in the case, which had triggered a political storm and attracted condemnation from political leaders and cultural activists cutting across party lines and ideologies.
Hashmi was killed at around 11 a.m. when he and his associates were staging a street play “Halla Bol” during municipal elections in Jhandapur and Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district. Hashmi was the head of a “Jan Natya Manch.”
There were 41 witnesses in the case, of which 13 were examined by the court.
Defence advocate J.P. Sharma argued that it was a scuffle in crowd and not a “rarest of rare category of crime” to be awarded the penalty.
Asserting it was not a murder case, he also argued that the incident occurred when a crowd pelted stones to clear the road “blocked” by the artistes, including Hashmi for staging the play.
He also pointed out “difference in versions” of witnesses including wife of deceased Hashmi, Moloyashri.
Prosecution counsel Mahendra Mudgal pleaded that the murder be treated as the “rarest of the rare” cases, which was not accepted by the judge.
— UNI, PTI
