Patna, Oct. 14 -- The Patna High Court on Tuesday set aside a trial court judgment convicting nine people in the 1996 Jehanabad killings and acquitted them for lack of sufficient evidence and identification. All nine had been sentenced to life imprisonment. The court also criticised the Bihar Police for sluggish investigation and serious lapses in evidence collection, directing the state police chief to constitute a committee of senior police officers to review the investigation and assess accountability. The incident took place on the intervening night of August 8 and 9, 1996, under Karpi police station, now in Arwal district, following a dispute over irrigation water. Four people were killed and several others injured in the attack. On April 3, 2023, an additional district and sessions judge in Jehanabad convicted several accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Nine of them challenged the judgment before the high court. A bench of justices Rajiv Ranjan Prasad and Kumar Manish observed that, despite the heinous nature of the incident, convictions must rest on strong legal evidence. It noted that the court had previously directed the state home department and the director general of police (DGP) to examine cases in which investigative lapses had led to acquittals, but said it was unclear whether those directions had yielded significant results. "It is high time for the authorities to sit together and review its policy in this regard," the court said, adding that the investigation required scrutiny by a team of senior police officers. The bench directed the DGP to constitute a three-member committee of senior officers of repute to review the investigating officer's work and take appropriate administrative action based on its findings within three months of receiving a copy of the judgment. It also directed the Bihar home department to submit a detailed report on the findings and the accountability of officials found to have erred....