S. Muralidhar, J.

1.1 Hashimpura is a mohalla, i.e. a small area of Meerut city, about 82.5 kms north-east of Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh. Meerut's population in terms of the 2011 census was approximately 3.5 million. Around 36% of the population are Muslims. Many of them earn meagre sums as artisans and labourers to keep themselves and their families going.

1.2 On 22nd May 1987, in the evening hours, Hashimpura witnessed a tragedy that would leave a deep festering wound. Around 42 to 45 men, old and young, all Muslim, were rounded up by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), packed into a truck and taken away. Each of them was shot by the PAC personnel with .303 rifles in cold blood and the bodies despatched to a watery grave - some in the Gang nahar (canal) and the remaining in the Hindon river. Five of them survived to recount the horrific tale. Of the 38 that were killed, the dead bodies of just 11 of them were able to be identified later by their relatives. The remaining bodies were not recovered.

1.3 In May, 1987 communal riots took place in Meerut District. As a result, the police, paramilitary and military forces had been posted at mohalla Hashimpura for riot control and security. This included the 'C-Company' of the 41st Battalion of the PAC. On 21st May 1987, the brother of an Army Major was killed in the mohalla adjacent to Hashimpura and two rifles belonging to the PAC personnel ‘were looted by certain anti social elements. This led to the registration of FIR No. 204/1987 at PS Civil Lines, Meerut under Sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307, 347, 436 and 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The criminal case arising therefrom is still pending before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Meerut.

1.4 On 22nd May 1987 post noon, around 644 men, all Muslim, belonging to mohalla Hashimpura were arrested under Sections 107, 116 and 151 Cr PC. They were first rounded up under a peepal tree in Hashimpura and divided into two groups. The first group comprised elderly men and young boys and the second comprised young men. They were to be sent to the PS Civil Lines and Police Lines in Meerut in the trucks of the PAC, the Army, the CRPF and the local police on the directions of the District Administration. The 42 to 45 males rounded up by the PAC and taken away in a truck and killed belonged to the first group.

1.5 The criminal justice process in connection with the murders commenced with the registration of two first information reports (FIRs). FIR No.110/1987 was registered at PS Link Road, Ghaziabad on 22nd May, 1987 and FIR No.141/1987 was registered at PS Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad on 23rd May, 1987. The investigation of both cases was handed over to the Crime Branch, Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID), Uttar Pradesh.

1.6 The CB-CID filed a charge sheet in the criminal court in Ghaziabad in 1996, nine years after the event. 18 officers of the PAC were arraigned as accused in the first charge sheet. The 19th accused was arraigned in the supplementary charge sheet. Under the orders of the Supreme Court, passed in 2002 and 2007, the trial of the cases was transferred to Delhi. Charges were thereafter framed by the trial court on 24th May, 2006 against all the accused under Sections 147, 148, 149, 120B and 364/302/307/201 all read with 149 IPC. 19 years had elapsed by this time. During the pendency of the trial three of the accused died. The trial meandered for over eight years ending in a judgment dated 23rd March 2015 whereby all the 16 remaining accused were acquitted. That was 28 years after the commission of the crime.

1.7 Aggrieved by the acquittal, three appeals have been filed in this Court - two by the victims and their families and one by the State of U.P. This Court permitted the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene. Accepting the plea of the NHRC, this Court permitted additional evidence to be rec