... 116 persons were killed in a communal riot in Logai in Bhagalpur district on October 27, 1989. It was one of the worst communal riots, with more than a thousand killed in the district. The rioters in Logai buried the bodies in a field and planted vegetables there, defying curfew ... Officer in charge of Jagdishpur P.S. and the Block Development Officer allegedly helped in burying the bodies ... The case has not yet come up for hearing ..

Special Public Prosecutor says the delay is mainly because some of the accused are absconding. But he also blames the police for not showing any keenness to trace them.

Those who had migrated from Logai ... after the massacre, never mustered courage to return, even though strangers had usurped their land ... Malka Begum of Chanderi, whose leg was chopped off. The marauders, who killed 66 persons in her village, left her in a pond for dead. Soldiers rescued her and took her to a hospital ..

In all, 811 FIRs had been filed after the riots. The police filed 302 chargesheets, and the lower courts have disposed of 152 cases, acquitting the accused in 119 cases. In the remaining 33 cases, the District and Sessions Court punished many of the accused with life imprisonment. Most of them have appealed to the High Court. The other cases are pending before the special courts. The state government gave compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the families of 634 victims. Some also got Rs 10,000 from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

The administration rejected 169 pleas for compensation ... (though) the Sessions Court has directed the district administration to pay compensation in some of these cases ... Most of the accused have got bail while others are persuading the appellants to withdraw their cases. Some witnesses do not turn up during hearings as the police do not provide them any security ... (Some) got anticipatory bail. All the 24 accused involved in the riots in Chanderi are on bail. The hearing in these cases is yet to begin.

The state government had constituted three special courts, exclusively for riot cases. It also appointed two special public prosecutors who were later replaced by five SPPs in 1995. A special court judge (said) that the police were not keen on producing the witnesses or tracing the accused, even after receiving several court notices.

On the other hand, many (Muslims) claim that the police falsely implicated them ... With financial help from Tisco, the district administration had built 200 houses at three riot-hit villages for those affected. But in Chanderi, only 5 of the 27 affected families live in these houses. The rest are occupied by anti-socials ... The riot-hit families have no hope that the marauders will ever be brought to book ...