2023-06-08 00:49:35
- The Gita
- BBC News-Delhi
Primvati’s two sons and daughter were killed in that attack
Last week, a 90-year-old Indian villager was sentenced to life in prison for killing 10 people in a caste crime that took place 42 years ago.
Victims’ families say the court’s ruling came so late that it no longer holds any meaning for them, and legal experts say this is a typical case of “delay and denial of justice.”
Of course, the evening of 30 December 1981 is engraved in the memory of the old residents of Sadupur village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
“A group of men entered my compound around 6:30pm and started shooting,” says Ms. Premvati. She is not sure of her age but thinks she is regarding 75 years old.
“They didn’t ask me anything, they just started shooting at us,” Primvati goes on to say, adding that within minutes, three of her children – a boy of regarding 10 years old – were dead around her. 10 years and another boy who is 8 years old, and a daughter who is 14 years old.
Primvati showed her right leg, where it was shot, to photographers who visited the village following the court order was issued. Although the wound has healed, the scar remains.
Her children were among the ten Dalits (formerly untouchables) killed that evening. Primvati was among the two women injured.
image copyright Jitendra Kishore
The only surviving accused, Ganga Dayal (centre), was sentenced to life in prison
The only surviving accused, Ganga Dayal, a member of the Yadav caste, was sentenced by Harveer Singh of the Firozabad district court to life imprisonment last Wednesday. Dayal has also been ordered to pay a fine of 55,000 rupees ($668; £533) – and if he fails to pay, he will have to spend an extra 13 months in jail.
The verdict indicated that nine of the ten defendants died during the trial period. Lawyer Rajeev Upadhyay, who represented the government in court, told me that several witnesses for the prosecution and defense also died during that long trial.
With the passage of more than four decades between the occurrence of the crime and the execution of the punishment, the features of the case have become somewhat vague.
Primvati and the other Dalit villagers insist that their families have no enmity with anyone. But Upadhyay said he believed inter-communal relations had soured following some Dalits complained regarding the handling of a shop owned by a member of the Yadav community, which led to violence.
The crime made the front pages of newspapers at the time, and villagers said that then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and State Chief Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh visited them and promised justice.
The prominent leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Atal Bihari Vajpayee – who later served as Prime Minister of India – had gone to the village on foot to protest the killings.
“He said he mightn’t bring our dead back to life, but he promised to help us get justice,” Primvati said, adding that the villagers learned of the conviction from journalists who had come to seek their response to the court ruling.
She told them, “God knows if this is fair.”
image copyright Jitendra Kishore
Maharaj Singh, a much younger neighbour, who also lost family members to Primvati and grew up hearing the horrific stories of the “massacre that evening,” said: “We appreciate that justice has finally been served, but it is not timely. I would have been happy.” Indeed, if only justice was served in due time.”
He added, “The trial took 42 years to reach justice. If the conviction was issued within five to six years, our elders would have died peacefully.”
Upadhyay says the case took a long time to conclude because at the time of the murder the village she witnessed was part of an area called Mainpuri, but in 1989 it became part of the newly created Firuzabad district.
The case files remained forgotten in Mainpuri until 2001 when they were transferred to the Firuzabad Court on the orders of the Allahabad High Court.
Obadhyay says hearings only began in 2021 as part of a government campaign to quickly end the court backlog and old cases.
“The government and the judiciary are trying to send a message to the public that the law will pursue you if you commit a crime,” he says.
image copyright Jitendra Kishore
Primvati was injured in her leg
But lawyer Akshat Bajpai says justice must be timely.
“This is really a case of delay and denial of justice… People can understand a delay of two to three years, but for a delay of 40 years is unacceptable.”
“It is the state’s responsibility to provide timely justice especially for people like Primvati because she is a Dalit, who are among the most marginalized people in the country,” says Bajpai.
“The failure of India’s criminal justice system is that the victims and their families have had to live in agony for 42 years,” he adds.
This is not the only case that has taken a long time to be resolved. Indian criminal justice has a reputation for delay, and many citizens say they resent the fact that cases often drag on for years or even decades.
image copyright Jitendra Kishore
Maharaj Singh says the villagers would have been relieved if justice had been served in a timely manner
This has resulted in a huge backlog of unresolved issues. Last February, the government informed Parliament that there were nearly 50 million cases pending in Indian courts.
Professor Rashid, an expert in Indian criminal law and founder of the Live Law website, says the biggest reason for the delay is the lack of enough judges.
“The ratio of judges in India is very low, which makes the burden huge on each judge. Therefore, trials take a long time to be decided finally and conclusively.”
Mr. Rashid also blames “old-fashioned procedures” that take too long and delay cross-examination – for example, judges still have to transcribe testimonies by hand despite huge advances in technology.
He adds that an appeal in the Supreme Court usually takes at least five to 10 years to be included in a final hearing – and then a similar number of years in the Supreme Court.
“So cases where convicts are acquitted following 20 or 30 years at the appeal stage are not uncommon in India,” he adds.
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