Hashimpura records destroyed: UP cops

The UP police, for the first time, has admitted having destroyed documents related to deployment of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) during Hashimpura riots in 1987. The documents could have helped establish the role of the PAC personnel in the riots.

In the latest twist to the case, SSP Meerut, in a letter to the CB CID, has stated that the documents related to the deployment of PAC and their duty roster for Hashimpura for the month of May 1987, when the riots took place, have been destroyed. The letter states that the records were destroyed in April 2006 as per the provisions in place. The letter, dated January 30, 2016, has been sent in response to CB CID’s requisition of the said documents.

The Delhi high court, on a petition of the NHRC, had directed the UP government to provide certified copies of the duty roster of the PAC personnel and police officials who were deputed at Hashimpura in May 1987 when the said the killings took place.

The Hashimpura massacre took place on May 22, 1987 during the communal riots in Meerut. Nineteen PAC personnel allegedly rounded up 42 Muslim youths from the Hashimpura locality bundled them into a truck and took them to the outskirts near Murad Nagar, where they were shot dead.

The bodies of the victims were dumped in water canals where they were found floating a few days later. In May 2000, 16 of the 19 accused PAC personnel surrendered and were later released on bail while three were already dead.

The trial of the case was transferred by the Supreme Court in 2002 from Ghaziabad to a sessions court in Delhi.

It may be recalled that a Delhi court, last year, had acquitted 16 of the 19 PAC men who were accused of kidnapping and murder of 42 Muslims during riots in Hashimpura.

Three of the 19 PAC jawans had died in the course of the trial and the matter is still pending before the Delhi Court where the Uttar Pradesh government and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have appealed against the acquittal.

None of the senior police officials in Lucknow were ready to comment on the destruction of records when the trial in the case is still on.