New Delhi: The Delhi high court today dismissed the appeal of 15 persons belonging to the dominant Jat community against their conviction and sentencing in a case of burning alive a 70-year-old Dalit man and his disabled daughter at Mirchpur village in Haryana’s Hisar district in 2010.
A bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and I.S. Mehta said even after 71 years of independence, atrocities on Scheduled Caste communities has shown no signs of abating. The court also convicted 20 more persons who were let off by a trial court earlier, asking those awarded life sentence to surrender by September 1.
The high court pronounced the verdict on the appeal of 15 persons challenging their conviction and sentence by a trial court in the case. Of these 15, two people died, during the pendency of the appeal before the court.
With today’s verdict, 12 out of 33 convicts are sentenced to life imprisonment for the offences, including murder under the IPC and committing mischief by fire or explosive substance by a member of a community other than SC/ST, intending to cause damage property of a member of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community under the SC/ST (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act.
In its 209-page verdict, the bench said:
“The incidents that took place in Mirchpur between April 19 and 21, 2010 serve as yet another grim reminder of ‘the complete absence of two things in Indian society’ as noted by Dr B.R. Ambedkar when he tabled the final draft of the Constitution of India before the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949. One was ‘equality’ and the other ‘fraternity’.”
The court held that the houses Balmikis were deliberately targeted by the Jats and common object in the case was to “teach members of the Balmiki community a lesson and this has been fully achieved by the accused persons”.
It said the fine amounts collected from the convicts shall be utilised by the Haryana Government as part of the provision of pecuniary relief and rehabilitation to the victims.
The victims and the police had also appealed in the high court seeking enhancement of punishment awarded to the convicts and acquittal of others.
The trial court had on September 24, 2011, convicted 15 of 97 men belonging to the Jat community, in a judgement hailed as a landmark, despite the court not finding any of the accused guilty of culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy.
How events unfolded
On April 21, 2010, Tara Chand’s house was among 18 that were set on fire by Jats, burning alive the father and daughter. The violence began after a Dalit youth objected to Jat men throwing stones at a dog.
Following the incident, about 250 Dalit families were forced to flee due to pressure from Jats. The families had lived in Delhi for a few months before making an attempt to go back home. The Jats continued to pressure them to withdraw the case, forcing them to flee once more. Most families are still living on a patch of land on the outskirts of Hisar, loaned by a social activist. Only about 50 families have returned to the village. Caste violence reared its head once again in February 2017, when 40 Dalit families were forced to flee after another attack.
On October 31, 2011, the trial court had sentenced Kulwinder, Dharambir and Ramphal to life imprisonment for committing unintentional killing under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code.
Five others – Baljeet, Karamveer, Karampal, Dharambir and Bobal – were handed jail term of five years for their offences including rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, mischief and putting ablaze victims’ houses and provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Seven others, convicted under milder penal provisions, were released on probation by the trial court, which had earlier acquitted 82 out of 97 accused in the case.
A swift conviction
The trial court’s swift conviction of the accused in the Mirchpur case is in stark contrast to other Prevention of Atrocities cases, where cases usually go on for several years. Despite over 130 SC/ST Atrocity cases being booked every day on average, only a fourth of the cases ended in conviction.
In some cases like the Tsundur massacre in Andhra Pradesh, trial court convictions are overturned by high courts. A trial court convicted 56 people for massacring eight Dalits in Tsundur village. While the massacre was in 1991, soon after the SC/ST (POA) Act was passed in 1989, the trial court’s judgement only came in 2007. In 2014, the Andhra Pradesh high court overturned the conviction and acquitted all 56 people. The victims have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, where it is pending.
(With PTI inputs)