[Reader-list] "Lifer for 5 in Dalit massacre case"

[Kshmendra Kaul]

I am against 'death penalty' for any kind of a crime whatsoever but I wonder why those found guilty of this 'massacre' were not awarded the death-sentence.
 
Shameful that it should take thirty years to bring such a case to conclusion.
 
Kshmendra
 
 
"Lifer for 5 in Dalit massacre case"
 
legal correspondent

NEW DELHI, 5 DEC: Thirty years after eight Dalits were massacred by upper caste Thakurs in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has sentenced to life imprisonment five of the accused and said the caste system must be abolished for the smooth functioning of rule of law and democracy in the country. 

Reversing an Allahabad High Court judgment that acquitted all 18 accused who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court for committing the murder, the Supreme Court restored the conviction of six of them as recorded by the trial court. One of the six, however, had died during the pendency of the case.

“It is absolutely imperative to abolish the caste system as expeditiously as possible for smooth functioning of rule of law and democracy in our country,” a Bench of Justices Mr Dalveer Bhandari and Mr AK Patnaik said while delivering its verdict on the case. 

The apex court said: “Unfortunately, the centuries-old Indian caste system still takes its toll from time to time. This case unfolds the worst kind of atrocities committed by the so-called upper caste against the so-called lower caste in a civilised country”. 

In the case in question, the massacre was carried out to teach a lesson to the so-called lower caste, and to commit dacoity, the judgment noted. “The accused persons belonging to Thakur caste literally butchered seven totally innocent persons belonging to the Harijan caste, and to wipe out the entire evidence of their atrocities, after shooting (the bodies of the victims) were thrown in the river Ganges,” it noted. 

It was at the intervention of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram that the police had arrested 18 people in connection with the 9 September, 1979 massacre at Lohari village, under Hussainganj police station in Uttar Pradesh.

The sessions court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 18 of the accused persons in 1982, against which the accused had appealed in Allahabad High Court.

The case went on for 19 years in the High Court and on 10 January, 2001, the High Court acquitted all the accused of the charges, ignoring even the evidence of an injured witness whose wife was also killed in the carnage.

The Supreme Court, which re-appreciated the entire evidence in the case, said the High Court had taken an erroneous view and wrongly ignored the evidence of the witness, due to certain minor discrepancies in his testimonies like not properly naming the accused. It said minor discrepancies in statements of witnesses should be ignored by courts in such cases as they are bound to be under tremendous fear. 

“The High Court has neither analyzed the evidence nor the documents on record and without any cogent evidence, the High Court by the impugned judgment has set aside a very well reasoned judgment of the trial court,” the Supreme Court said while reversing the acquittal against the five accused, and directed them to surrender forthwith failing which they would be arrested.
 
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=276964