NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Friday reversed the acquittal of 20 people accused of arson and burning alive a 60-year-old Dalit man and his physically challenged daughter at Mirchpur village in Haryana ’s Hisar district in 2010.

At the same time, the high court upheld the conviction of 13 others in the case and enhanced punishment for nine of them.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta observed: “The incidents of April 21, 2010 constituted an act of deliberate targeting of Balmiki houses by Jats, setting them on fire in a pre-planned and carefully orchestrated manner. It was pursuant to a conspiracy by the Jats to ‘teach the Balmikis a lesson’.”

On the fateful day, Mirchpur had witnessed burning down of 18 Balmikis homes by an irate Jat mob. While Tara Chand and his daughter were killed, several others suffered injuries and loss of property. More than 200 Balmiki families fled the village in the aftermath of the attack.

