Crime and Punishment: Is the Indian Justice System Impartial?

Indian Justice System
Image Courtesy:countercurrents.org

Indian society has been suffering from violence of many types. Two of these the communal violence and acts of terror have shaken the very humane ethos of our society from last few decades. Communal violence which began during colonial period has by now assumed the form of a majoritarian violence directed against religious minorities. During the colonial period, both types of communal streams contributed to this insane phenomenon. After Independence, majoritarian violence has come to dominate and torment religious minorities with increasing intensity. The justice delivery system is such that most of the culprits of violence belonging to the majority community get away without any serious punishment.

We also witnessed the terrorist violence. Starting from Mumbai bomb blasts in March 1993, after an interlude it resurfaced during the period of 2006 to 2008. After the Sankatmochan terrorist attack, we there were blasts in Malegaon, Makkah Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and Samjhauta express in particular. Ahmadabad also saw the series of blasts in 2008, when during a period of few hours many a bomb exploded killing 56 people and injuring nearly 100 people.

How has the justice system dealt with these insidious acts of crime? In the recent judgment the special Court in February 2022, awarded death penalty to 38 Muslims and gave life term to 11 more in case related to Ahmadabad blasts. The principles of justice were rightly upheld and all those who had evidence against them were given the punishment.

What about the series of blasts Malegaon to Ajmer, how has justice been delivered? In these blasts, which took place mostly in places of Muslim worship and at a time when Muslims congregate for prayers, the total death toll must have ranged over a couple of hundred.

The justice delivery system begins with the police investigation. Initially the line of investigation in these cases was that ‘All Terrorists are Muslims’ and even when the victims were Muslims, another set of Muslims were arrested. When they were arrested it made front page headlines. In most cases the Muslim youth who were arrested, suffered a social boycott and their careers were ruined. After some time, most of these youths had to be released for the lack of any credible evidence. And their release made small news, hidden in the back pages of the papers.

At around this time, Hemant Karkare took over as the chief of the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra, and dove deep into the investigation. He came across the fact that the motorcycle used in Malegaon Blast belonged to Pragya Singh Thakur, a former member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Incidentally, she is currently the Member of Parliament from Bhopal. She is one of the accused in Malegaon case but is on bail most of the time on medical grounds. Interestingly, during the bail period her pictures playing cricket or basket-ball have surfaced.

Karkare’s investigation led to the whole range of people: Swami Aseemanand of VHP (RSS), Lt Col. Prasad Shrinkant Purohit, (Retd) Major Upadhyaya and many who had been either active or were past members of RSS and its affiliates. Swami Aseemanand in his confession in front of magistrate elaborated the whole process in which he along with other accused had set up suicide squads. In between, in Nanded in Mr. Rajkondawar’s house a blast took place in which two youths belonging to Bajrang Dal lost their lives.

In due course the investigation picked up and the large number of activists related to Aseemanand and Pragya Thakur were behind the bars. Later during 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai, Hemant Karkare was killed. The instructions were passed on to the public prosecutor Rohini Salian to go slow on these cases. Swami Aseemanand’s claim, that his confession in front of the court was under coercion, was accepted to release him. Most of the accused were given bail, many cases were closed. Still two workers, who are claimed to be ex-RSS pracharaks, Devendra Gupta and Bhavesh Patel are in jail for Ajmer blasts. That’s about all.

Now the narrative is being constructed that the UPA Government wanted to implicate the Hindu nationalists. The contrast between the Ahmadabad verdict, and the lingering cases from Malegaon and other blasts, are glaring. How the cases are put up in the courts is clear from what the judge acquitting Swami Assemanand, Jagdeep Singh said, “… conclude this judgment with deep pain and anguish as a dastardly act of violence remained unpunished for want of credible and admissible evidence. There are gaping holes in the prosecution evidence and an act of terrorism has remained unsolved.” In addition, the prevalent biases are also operative where the social perception that all terrorists are Muslims may be guiding the outcome of many cases.

In case of communal violence, the story is very different again. Starting from Mumbai violence the Shrikrishna Commission report did point out the acts of commission and omission very aptly. In Mumbai violence nearly 1,000 people were killed out of which over 80% were Muslims. Despite the meticulous investigation by the commission no single death penalty or punishment of any serious consequence. While in the bomb blast which followed (March 1993) two were given death penalty and two were given life imprisonment.

In the Gujarat carnage of 2002, close to two thousand people lost their lives. Ahsan Jafri was killed in the same carnage. His case is still hanging in the court. In the same carnage, Babu Bajrangi, who openly confessed in sting operation by Tehelka, that he was feeling like Maharana Pratap while playing the one-day match of killing as many Muslims as possible in the three-day period which was available to them! He got life imprisonment. Maya Kodnanai who was found inciting the violence was also given life term, but was acquitted by the High Court and released later.

Criminal justice has its own logic at present and its discrepancies are not matching with the democratic ethos of our Constitution. Relief and rehabilitation are also points after the violence, and our society needs a serious introspection on that lack of the same at present. The biases and hate against minorities do seem to have seriously distorted the justice delivery system.

To cap it all in the case of 38 being given death penalty, the BJP Gujarat posted a tweet with the cartoon showing many skull cap wearing, beard sporting Muslims being hanged. Mercifully Twitter has pulled down this tweet. Such are the acts which intensify the prevalent hate.

Can we hope for a just society with an equal justice delivery system for all, irrespective of their religion?

* Views expressed are the author’s own. Dr. Puniyani is a human rights defender and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay).