In Jharkhand, four suspected Maoists who were sentenced to death by a lower court were acquitted on Thursday by the Jharkhand High Court. Earlier this year, Giridih district court had awarded death sentence to them for their role in a midnight massacre of 19 people in 2007 at Chilkari village in Giridih district, in which former Chief Minister of the state Babulal Marandi’ son Anup Marandi was also killed. A Division bench of Justice R. K. Merethia and Justice D. N. Upadhaya acquitted the four convicted suspected Maoists giving them benefits of doubt. This judgement is seen as a serious setback to the police. The contradictory statements of the witnesses went in favour of the accused. Also none of the 12 injured could identify any of the accused. Speaking to reporters, defense council B.N. Tripathy said that the High Court was not convinced by the prosecution case. The four acquitted are Jiten Marandi, Chatrapati, Manoj Rajuwar and Anil Ram.