India, March 19 -- LUCKNOW A special court in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday sentenced three men to death for the massacre of 24 Dalit people in 1981, bringing the curtain down on a grisly crime where a gang led by Thakur dacoits targeted villagers 44 years ago, on the suspicion that they were police informers.

Special judge Indira Singh convicted the trio, Kaptan Singh, 60, Rampal, 60, and Ram Sevak, 70, on March 11. The court pronounced the quantum of punishment on Tuesday. Apart from capital punishment, the court imposed a Rs.50,000 fine on the convicts.

Ramsevak and Kaptan Singh were convicted under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 449 (house-trespass after enterin...