[Reader-list] Justice Delayed, and Denied Yet Again:

[Asit Das]

*People's Union for Democratic Rights*



*Justice Delayed, and Denied Yet Again: PUDR urges Supreme Court to suo
moto intervene in the Shankarbigha and other massacres*



27 January 2015



People's Union for Democratic Rights strongly condemns the acquittal of the
accused in the Shankarbigha massacre (Jehanabad District) of 1999. On 14
January, 2014, a Trial Court in Jehanabad District of Bihar acquitted all
the 24 accused members of Ranvir Sena in Shankarbigha killings on grounds
of “lack of evidence”. All the 23 persons killed, of them seven children
including a 10 month old child, five women and eleven men, were from
families of landless agricultural workers from the Dalit and backward
communities of Paswan, Chamar, Dushads, and Rajwar. A private militia of
Bhumihar (loosely described as landlord) caste – Ranvir Sena (active from
early 1990s) – unleashed the terror on the victims on the eve of the
Republic Day, night of 25th January 1999. After 16 years of court battle
the accused have been set at liberty. The verdict in the Shankarbigha case
provides occasion to reflect on the caste massacres of the 1980s and 1990s
in Bihar (undivided) and their aftermath.

The Shankarbigha killings were part of the series of “caste-cleansing”
undertaken by the private upper caste Rajput and Bhumihar militias like
Sunlight Sena, Savarna Liberation Front and Ranvir Sena in the agrarian
ecosystem of central Bihar districts. In 27 incidents of massacres by
Ranvir Sena 400 children, women and men perished. It is important to note
that all these massacres took place in the context of  peoples’ struggles
over land and wages under the leadership of CPI(ML) Liberation, CPI(ML)
Party Unity and Maoist Communist Centre against the economic and social
dominance of the Rajput and Bhumihar landlords in Bihar in the 1980s-90s.
The struggling poor largely comprised of landless Dalits, other backward
castes, and poor peasants.

In October 2013, the Patna High Court acquitted all 23 members of Ranvir
Sena accused of Laxmanpur Bathe massacre (1997) where 58 Dalit agricultural
labourers were killed. On the other hand, the accused of Bara Massacre,
Gaya (where members of Bhumihar caste were killed allegedly by erstwhile
members of the Maoist Communist Centre belonging to Mochi, Paswan, Dussadh
communities i.e. Dalit and backward castes) have been convicted and are in
jail since 1992. The interplay of social stratifications and the resulting
judicial bias can be clearly inferred from the fate of similar crimes but
different accused.

It is also worth noting that the Shankarbigha verdict is the fifth in row
of the recent acquittals, on the basis of either “lack of evidence” orabsence
of reliable eye-witnesses. Four Patna High Court verdicts in Bathani Tola
(April 2012), Nagari Bazaar (March 2013), Miyanpur (July 2013), and
Laxmanpur Bathe (October 2013) over the last two years acquitted all those
upper caste persons who had been convicted by the Trial Courts. In the
Shankarbigha case, where the acquittal has happened at the Trial Court
stage itself, all 49 witnesses turned hostile and declared inability to
identify the accused. Fear and social pressure of dominant castes are not
to be taken lightly. Despite the fact that the Ranvir Sena publicly
accepted that they had carried out the massacre, the allegedly insufficient
evidence only goes on to highlight the bias of police in investigating the
crime and collecting evidence to prosecute the case. The laxity of police
in investigation of all other massacres of Dalit and backward peasants and
agricultural labourers is evident from the results of the trial as
mentioned above.

*List of recent acquittals of upper caste persons in cases of massacres of
lower caste persons in Bihar due to lack of evidence or unreliable
witnesses*

*Year of massacre*

*Incident*

*Number of landless Dalits killed*

*Acquittal of Upper Caste accused by*

*Acquittal date*

1996

Bathani Tola

20

Patna High Court

April 2012

1997

Laxmanpur Bathe

58

Patna High Court

October 2013

1998

Nagari Bazaar

10

Patna High Court

March 2013

1999

Shankarbigha

23

Trial Court, Jehanabad

January 2015

2000

Miyanpur

32

Patna High Court

July 2013



Bias is also evident in the judiciary’s selective and differential use of
laws. While TADA (since lapsed) was immediately slapped on lower caste
accused of Bara massacre involved in killing of upper caste men and
landlords in 1992, despite the Ranvir Sena being declared a proscribed
organization at the time. But the provisions of even The Scheduled Castes
and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were not
applied in the case of Shankarbigha massacre. This is not to argue that
extra-ordinary laws be imposed in all cases of massacre, where so far they
have not been. To the contrary, as PUDR believes that the use of these laws
are fundamentally undemocratic and fallible, something that the above
mentioned comparisons make obvious - all such cases should be tried under
ordinary law. What we sue for is impartial and thorough investigation, and
just and fair trials so that justice can be delivered to all.

Shankarbigha trial and investigation when contrasted against Bara massacre
yet again shows,  that the criminal justice system is loaded in favour of
the powerful against the powerless, and that the awarding of punishments is
itself in keeping with existing inequalities. Members of the police and the
judiciary in the conduct of their duties replicate the same caste
structures and prejudices that characterize the society from which they
come. The arc of history of people struggling for justice in India is long
but it bends in favour of injustice with a regularity which tends to make
it a rule.

Since the matter is before the Court we urge the apex court to suo moto
intervene in these instances of gross injustice and ensure that even if
delayed, justice is done to the victims of the massacres and that perpetrators
not allowed to escape scot free.

*Sharmila Purkayastha and Megha Bahl*

*(Secretaries)*