58 Dalits were gunned down including 27 women and 16 children. In the well-planned operation, about 100 Ranbir Sena activists carrying firearms had descended on Lakshmanpur Bathe at around 11 pm. They forced their way into huts by breaking open the doors and fired indiscriminately at people who were asleep. The youngest victim was one-year-old.
The Laxmanpur-Bathe case was pending with no witnesses turning up and the police sitting over it. But it was only in December 2008, that charges were framed against 46 Ranvir sena men, 11 years after the massacre.
Altogether 91 of 152 witnesses in the case deposed before the court. Sessions Judge Mishra, on conclusion of trial in the case on April 1, had fixed April 7, 2010, as the date for announcing the verdict.
Earlier, the case was transferred to Patna from Jehanabad following a Patna High Court order in October, 1999.
