The Patna High Court on Friday took suo moto cognizance of the Nawada violence in which a Mahadalit locality was torched on the night of September 18 allegedly over a land dispute.

An armed mob had surrounded the Krishna Nagar locality under the Nawada Mufassil police station area on the fateful night, fired indiscriminately, thrashed the residents, looted their valuables and set around 80 houses on fire.

The bench of Chief Justice K. Vinod Chandran ordered the Bihar government to file a detailed affidavit with regard to the incident and decided to hear the case next on November 29.

During the hearing, Advocate General P.K. Shahi pointed out that the state government acted swiftly after getting information about the incident and “altogether 24 people have been arrested so far”.

He asserted that the violence was an outcome of a long pending land dispute and a case was already going on in the Nawada civil court.

Shahi said that the government has made arrangements for food, water and rehabilitation of the victims. A school was also being run for the children of the families of the victims.

“The root cause behind the incident was an order by the district court on May 29 which led to the appointment of a commission in the case. This created confusion between the two sides over the ownership rights of the land in question. The case is still going on in the lower court,” Shahi told the high court bench.

The incident was unprecedented because the victims and the main accused both hailed from the Scheduled Castes (SC). The Musahars (Rat eaters) and Ravidas (Mochi or Chamar caste), counted among the most downtrodden among the Dalits, bore the brunt of the violence while the main accused were from the Paswan caste, allegedly backed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supporters, including the Yadavs.