Extreme poverty, lack of land reforms, caste discrimination and oppression and denial of access to justice push the Dalits closer to the Naxals.  The concentration of Dalit populations in the Naxalite affected areas in India is quite high.

While the Supreme Court delivered its judgement on 15 April 2002 in the Bara massacre case of 12 February 1992 in which 36 people of the upper-castes were killed by the Maoists Communist Centre, the Dalits have little access to justice. The petitions pending before the court for prosecution of the alleged culprits responsible for the massacre of the Dalits are collapsing due to the unwillingness of the State to establish accountability.

In the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre on the intervening night of 1 and 2 December 1997, Ranvir Sena men massacred 59 Dalits of which 26 were women and 19 were children under the age of 10. On 6 December 1997, Justice Amir Das Commission was constituted to ‘'probe the nexus between the Ranvir Sena and political elements''. It had a six-month term. Seven years have passed but the commission continues its endless hearings.

Informant Vinod Paswan filed a First Information Report No. 126/97 with Mehandia police station. After the filing of charge sheets, the trial started in February 1999. Six years later, even charges have not been framed against the 24 accused. Except two, the rest have been released on bail. During the framing of charges all the accused must be present physically in the court. For the past 20 hearings, all the accused never appeared. On 10 July 2004, Buxar Jail officials informed the court about a Home Department ‘'administrative decision'' not to produce accused Pramod Singh, the main accused, in any court. Earlier there were reports that informant Vinod Paswan was being threatened by Birendra Singh, one of the main accused. Neither Paswan nor Singh could be traced in the village. [1]

 In the Shanker Bigha massacre in Jehanabad, 23 Dalits were killed by suspected Ranvir Senas on 25 January 1999. An FIR was lodged at Mehandia police station (case no 5/99). There are 24 accused and 76 witnesses. Two charge sheets have been filed (37/03 of 15 August 2003 and 67/2000 of 26 February 2000). On 2 November 2003, the case was transferred from the chief judicial magistrate to the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Jehanabad, for framing of charges. However, charges could not be framed because all the accused must be present in court on the same day for framing of charges. This has not happened yet. Two accused, Parmeshwar Singh and Kamlesh Bhat, are in jail and the rest have been released on bail. [2]

On 10 February 1999, 12 Dalits were massacred at Narayanpur in Jehnabad. The Narayanpur massacre was a political landmark in Bihar's rocky history. The National Democratic Alliance government dismissed the Rabri Devi government only to be reinstated later. An FIR 17/99 was filed. A case was registered (State vs Sidhan Singh & others 5/2001) in which 12 persons were named and 32-35 unnamed accused.  The trial commenced on 22 February 2002; but the case is collapsing, as the witnesses are turning hostile under duress. [3]

Even in the Bara massacre case of 12 February 1992 in which 36 people of the upper-castes were killed by the MCC, Supreme Court's judgement of 15 April 2002 upholding the death penalty awarded to Veer Kunwar Paswan, Krishna Mochi, Dharu Singh (alias Dharmendra Singh) and Nanhe Lal Mochi by the TADA court raised many questions. Justice M B Shah raised the following questions on the ‘'quality of evidence'' and disagreed with the death sentence. However, he was in a minority in the 2-1 verdict of April 15, 2002. As Judge Shah pointed out the following questions:

(1)        Satyendra Sharma, the informant in the case, never deposed in court;

(2)        Confessional statement of Bihari Majhi, a Dalit labourer not even named in the FIR, was the basis of conviction. The statement, made before a police inspector, was denied by Majhi in court.

(3)        Of its 10 pages, Majhi's signature appears only on five. In any case, only an officer of the rank of at least superintendent can record admissible statements, even under TADA provisions.

(4)        Of the 34 prosecution witnesses, none stated that any of the four men took part in the murder or were members of an extremist group. No arms were recovered. [4]