Patna, Mar 2 (IANS): A court in Bihar's Gaya on Thursday sentenced a Maoist outfit commander, who had led the February 12, 1992 Bara massacre where 35 men were killed, to life imprisonment.

After 31 years, Gaya's District and Sessions Judge Gaya Manoj Kumar Tiwari pronounced the quantum of punishment for Kirani Yadav, the area commander of Maoist Communist Centre (MCC).

Special Public Prosecutor Pramod Kumar had demanded stringent punishment for him.

"Kirani Yadav, on February 12, 1992 had slit the throats of 12 persons with his own hands. He has been lodged in Gaya central jail since 2007. The quantum of punishment was announced through video conferencing on Thursday," Kumar said.

In the 1990s, there were a number of caste-based massacres in Bihar, due to rivalry between upper castes like the Bhumihars and lower castes represented by MCC.

The Bara massacre was the sensational case of mass murder by the banned MCC who selected their victims on the basis of their caste and slit their throats.

Some of the deceased were identified as Haridwar Singh, Bhushal Singh, Sadan Singh, Bhuwaneshwar Singh, Sanjay Singh, Shiv Janam Singh, Gora Singh, Bali Sharma, Ashu Singh, Sri Ram Singh, Pramod Singh and others. The Lalu Prasad government, which faced severe criticism after this incident, had announced government jobs for family members of those victims but the promise was not fulfilled.

Following the Bara massacre, Bihar had witnessed several such incidents like Laxmanpur Bathe, Senari, Bathani Tola, and others.