The Patna High court today set aside the death sentence to three persons and life imprisonment to 20 others in the case relating to the Bathani Tola carnage in Bihar in July, 1996. A division bench of Justices Navniti Prasad Singh and Ashwini Kumar Singh allowed the appeals against the conviction order on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove the involvement of the appellants in the crime beyond reasonable doubt. "The court has considered the entire material and observed that we regret that such a ghastly incident took place...the investigation was not fair in respect of the persons who perpetrated the ghastly crime," the court said. "Apparently investigation has directed in a particular direction far from the truth and not above suspicion," the order said.

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