New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS): The Special CBI court in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur has convicted nine persons for life imprisonment in a case related to 1992 arson and riots at Kumher in which 16 people died while 44 others sustained injuries.

The accused were identified as Lakho, Rajvir, Shiv Singh a.k.a Shibbo, Man Singh, Gopal, Pritam Singh, Paras Jain, Chotan and Prem Singh a.k.a Chiu.

According to officials, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the instant case on June 26, 1992 and had taken over the investigation of the case which was earlier registered at Kumher police station in district Bharatpur.

The FIR alleged a repercussion of various incidents, which took place at Rajasthan’s Kumher from June 1, 1992 onwards.

“The CBI took over the case pursuant to the notification issued by centre government after getting the consent of Rajasthan government.It was alleged that some persons from a community, who had gone to a local cinema hall at Kumher to watch a movie, were beaten by employees of a cinema hall belonging to another community,” said the official.

“After the said incident, tension arose between these communities which resulted in large scale arson and rioting. On the intervening night of 05.06.1992 & 06.06.1992, around 16 people died and around 44 people injured,” said the official.

“After thorough investigation, charge sheet was filed on October 27,1993 against the accused. The trial court had convicted nine accused and acquitted forty one accused while 36 accused expired during trial,” the official added.