PATNA, Sept. 17 -- The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter related to acquittal or reduction of sentence of 26 accused in the 1997 massacre of 58 dalits in Laxmanpur Bathe village of Jehanabad district on Wednesday. Of the 26 accused, 16 were awarded death sentence and 10 life term by additional district judge Vijay Prakash Mishra for the massacre allegedly carried out by suspected members of Ranveer Sena, the outlawed upper caste militia, on December 1, 1997. A division bench of Patna HC comprising justices VN Sinha and AK Lal had on October 9, 2013 absolved 26 persons of all the charges for lack of evidence. The order was passed on appeals filed by them after they were convicted by the lower court. The Bihar government as well as the victims also filed separate criminal appeals and a special leave petition (SLP) against the HC's order in the apex court. CPI-ML MLA from Arwal, Mahanand Singh, on Sunday also wrote to CM Nitish Kumar to do all necessary preparations ahead of the September 17 hearing so that the victims of the horrific massacre could finally get justice. "Describing the carnage as a "national shame", then President KR Narayanan had asked the Bihar government to take all steps to punish the guilty. After the acquittal order from the HC, the Bihar government filed the appeal and the CPI-ML had also moved the court. Now the time has come to present the case strongly for justice to the victims,"Singh added. On April 3, this year, the SC bench in its order had directed the registry for translation of the trial court records within a period of six weeks. "Meanwhile, the State will ascertain the present status of the respondents, as it is stated that many of them have expired. The SHO of the jurisdictional police station shall file a status report, after ascertaining the aforesaid fact, within a period of eight weeks," the order had stated. Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta will hear the final hearing of the sensational case. Accused who are no more include Surendra Singh, Ashok Singh, Baleshwar Singh, Nawal Singh, Pramod Kumar alias Pramod Singh and Surendra Singh....