India court hands seven Muslim men life sentences

The 2013 murder of two Hindu men in UP sparked religious riots killing about 65 people and displacing thousands


Reuters February 08, 2019
In this photograph taken on September 25, 2014, paramilitary soldiers from the Rapid Action Force (RAF) walk past burnt vehicles as they patrol the streets of Vadodara city, some 110 kms from Ahmedabad. Indian police in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat have arrested more than 200 people after violence between majority Hindus and minority Muslims, a senior officer said September 29, 2014. PHOTO: AFP

NEW DEHLI: An Indian court on Friday sentenced seven Muslim men to life in prison for the murder of two Hindu men in 2013 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, an incident that had sparked religious riots killing about 65 people and displacing thousands.

The riots began in the district of Muzaffarnagar, 130km northeast of New Delhi, and spread to other areas in the country’s most populous state months before the 2014 election won by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.

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A court in Muzaffarnagar sentenced the men after they were found guilty of killing the two Hindus in the village of Kawal on August 27, 2013, prosecutor Rajeev Sharma said.

Nearly all the victims of the riots were Muslims, including about 12,000 people who were made temporarily homeless due to the unrest that polarised western Uttar Pradesh on religious lines.

COMMENTS (1)

Bunny Rabbit | 5 years ago | Reply Murder is murder irrespective of caste or religion. Its a punishment : well deserved .
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