It isn’t surprising that Zakia Jafri is disappointed with the verdict that was announced last week. “I am not satisfied with the court verdict,” she told Press Trust of India. “They should have been punished because I know what they did. They must have got the punishment as they killed people and destroyed their families. I saw them doing it with my own eyes.”

Jafri’s husband, Ehsan, was one of the 69 people who were killed when a violent mob attacked Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad, on February 28, 2002. A survivor, who claims to have seen Ehsan’s gruesome murder, said, “They hacked him, poured petrol over him and set him on fire.” He was not the only one. The massacre at Gulbarg Society went on for six hours.

In last week’s verdict, a special SIT court declared there was no proof of criminal conspiracy in the Gulbarg Society massacre and convicted 24 of the 66 accused. Of the 24, nine are already behind bars. Only 11 of the 24 have been charged with murder and the rest, of lesser offences. Today, the court is expected to pronounce the quantum of sentence.

It’s worth remembering that India has quite a history of violence, and one that the country’s judicial system has struggled with over the years. Here are just five incidents that you may not even have heard of, yet they claimed a significant number of lives and too often, the final judgment on these cases reflect a terrible mismatch between the number of deaths and the number found guilty.

Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh

Date: August 13, 1980

Chief Minister: VP Singh (Indian National Congress)

It was the eve of Eid. A large crowd had gathered at an idgah to offer morning prayers. During the service, some miscreants allegedly led pigs into the idgah, triggering a protest by the gathering. What ensued was a clash with the police. Leaders from the Muslim community have alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) failed to control the crowd and opened fire. Many were killed by their bullets. Several others died in the stampede that followed.

What followed was a city-wide riot that acquired a communal character and left 284 dead, including Additional District Magistrate DP Singh. Superintendent of Police Vijay Nath Singh was injured. The state government set up an inquiry commission headed by Justice MP Saxena of Allahabad High Court, which submitted its report later in the year. In almost 36 years, the reports has not been tabled, no action has been taken, no one has been found responsible for the riots.

Nellie, Assam

Date: February 18, 1983

Chief Minister: Undecided (elections were underway)

In the winter of 1983 the Indira Gandhi-led central government announced elections in the state and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) decided to boycott them. At the time, AASU was spearheading a campaign to expel Bengali-speaking Muslims, whom they considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, from the state and remove their names from electoral rolls. Believing it to be the only definitive way to establish their Indian identity, the Muslims decided to go ahead and vote.

Those living in the hamlet of Nellie, about 50km east of Guwahati, had no idea of the price they would have to pay for this decision. Days after the polls, men carrying country guns and machetes turned 16 villages into graveyards. Officially, 1,800 were killed. Unofficial estimates say the figure is more than 3,000.

While the Centre put the blame on a local tribe named Lulang, Muslims believed the massacre took place because they defied AASU’s poll boycott. The Tiwari Commission, set up in 1983, submitted its report in May 1984, but the findings were not made public. Against 688 FIRs, there were only 299 chargesheets, all of which were dropped on August 15, 1985, when the Centre, state government and AASU signed the Assam Accord on the “foreigner problem issue”.

Hashimpura, Uttar Pradesh

Date: May 22, 1987

Chief Minister: Vir Bahadur Singh (Indian National Congress)

Meerut was already simmering with communal tension since April that year. The Uttar Pradesh PAC had already been deployed. On May 19, an indefinite curfew was imposed. Three days later, the 41st company of PAC carried out search operations in Hashimpura, paraded all male residents on the streets, and took away 50 men in a truck. Reportedly, this truck was driven to the Upper Ganga Canal in Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad. Later, 42 bullet-ridden bodies were found in the canal. The victims were shot and their bodies thrown into the canal, allegedly by the PAC.

It wasn’t until 1996 that the Crime Branch Central Investigation Department (CB-CID) of UP Police filed a charge sheet against 19 PAC members in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ghaziabad. Listed as witnesses were161 people. In 2000, 16 of the accused surrendered; three had already died.

In 2002, following a petition filed by the families of victims and survivors, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Delhi. It took another four years to frame the charges of murder, attempt to murder, tampering with evidence and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, against the accused.

On March 21, 2015, Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court acquitted all the accused. The appeals process is underway and Delhi High Court will conduct a hearing on August 4.

Bathani Tola, Bihar

Date: July 11, 1996

Chief Minister: Lalu Prasad Yadav (Janata Dal)

It was mass murder at high noon. For more than two hours, armed men allegedly belonging to Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper-caste Bhumihars and Rajputs, hacked 21 Dalits to death. They were mostly women and children. Among those killed were a nine-month-old, a three-month-old and a pregnant woman, whose foetus was torn out and impaled. The next day, a FIR was filed against 33 men. Charges were made against 63 people.

In May 2010, the Ara sessions court convicted 23 of the accused, sentencing three of them to death and sentencing the others to life imprisonment. In July 2011, Brahmeshwar Singh ‘Mukhiyaji’, the founding head of Ranvir Sena, got bail. In April 2012, Patna High Court acquitted all 23, citing insufficient evidence.

Months later, Singh, alias the ‘Butcher of Bihar’, was shot dead.

Laxmanpur Bathe, Arwal, Bihar

Date: December 1, 1997

Chief Minister: Lalu Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal)

In the dead of night, armed members of Ranvir Sena stormed into the homes of unsuspecting villagers and fired indiscriminately, butchering 58 Dalits. The majority of those gunned down were women and children. The attacks were reportedly carried out in order to reinforce the hegemony of caste and teach a lesson to Dalits demanding higher wages for manual labour.

President of India KR Narayanan, declared the massacre a “national shame”. However, this didn’t change the impunity enjoyed by Ranvir Sena, whose rise in the state was rapid. It was only in 2008 that charges were pressed against 46 members of the militia. In April 2010, Patna Civil Court sentenced 16 of them to death and awarded life imprisonment to 10 others. In 2013, Patna High Court acquitted all 26 .