The Supreme Court was informed on Thursday that all 26 accused in the 1997 Laxmanpur Bathe massacre case are no longer alive.

A lawyer representing one of the deceased-accused conveyed this information to the bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar.

The massacre, which occurred in Bihar’s Arwal district on December 1, 1997, resulted in the brutal killing of 58 Dalits, allegedly by members of the Ranvir Sena, an upper-caste militia of Bhumihar landlords. The attack was reportedly in retaliation for the 1992 Bara massacre, in which 37 Bhumihars were killed by an armed Maoist group consisting predominantly of Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Following the incident, a sessions court convicted 26 out of 45 accused on April 7, 2010. Sixteen of them were sentenced to death, while ten received life imprisonment.

However, the Patna High Court overturned this verdict on October 9, 2013, acquitting all the accused due to unreliable prosecution witnesses and granting them the benefit of the doubt.

The Bihar government then filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in December 2013.

During the hearing on Thursday, a lawyer remarked, “This case pertains to the 1997 Laxmanpur Bathe massacre, in which 58 Scheduled Caste persons were killed. All 26 accused were acquitted by the Patna High Court. The State then moved in appeal.”

The counsel representing one of the accused informed the court, “I am instructed to state that all the 26 accused are dead.”

Expressing concern, CJI Sanjiv Khanna directed that a status report be filed and adjourned the matter.

The 26 accused included Girja Singh, Surendra Singh, Ashok Singh, Gopal Sharan Singh, Baleshwar Singh, Dwarika Singh, Bijendra Singh, Nawal Singh, Balram Singh, Nandu Singh, Shatrughan Singh, Nand Singh, Pramod Kr. Singh (son of Gopal Sharan), Dharichan Singh, Chandeshwar Singh, Ram Kewal Sharma (also known as Kawal), Dharma Singh, Shiv Mohan Sharma, Ashok Sharma, Babloo Sharma, Mithilesh Sharma, Navin Kumar, Ravindra Singh, Sunil Kumar, Pramod Singh (son of Late Sankh Singh), and Surendra Singh.

Since the appeal was filed, the Supreme Court has heard the case intermittently. It was first listed on January 13, 2014, when notice was issued on the stay application. The matter was heard again in 2018 and 2019, with the Court calling for original records and additional documents. In 2023, it was listed six times but was adjourned on multiple occasions due to the need for serving notice on some of the accused. During these hearings, the passing of some accused was flagged.

As per the record of proceedings dated January 1, 2025, five of the accused were reported dead at that time. In Thursday’s hearing, it was confirmed that none of the accused remain alive.