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Bhagalpur riot accused convicted

BHAGALPUR — A court in Bihar Saturday convicted Kameshwar Yadav, accused of killing a Muslim teenager during the 1989 communal riots in Bhagalpur.

Bhagalpur Additional District and Sessions Judge Arvind Madhav found Kameshwar Yadav guilty of shooting dead Mohammad Qayyum, 15.

Yadav was charged with firing upon Qayyum while leading a mob of rioters Oct 24, 1989.

The police had earlier closed the case against Yadav, citing lack of evidence. He was later even given a citation by the state police in 2004 for maintaining communal harmony.

However, the case against Yadav, who was also the prime accused in the killing of a Muslim shop owner, was one of the first in the 27 cases Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered to be reopened for investigation in 2006.

Qayyum’s father Mohammad Naseeruddin, in his complaint to the police, had said when he came out of his house on hearing sounds of gun shots and bomb blasts, he saw Yadav, along with some other rioters, gun down his son who was trying to run for safety. He also said that the body of his son was taken away by the mob as he hid in his own house due to fear.

In 2007, Yadav was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by the court in another case of communal violence in Bhagalpur in 1989.

Over 1,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, were killed in the month-long riots in Bhagalpur city in October 1989.

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