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The ‘learned’ judge
stated, " I do not even see even an iota of evidence". He then proceeded
to free the 21 butchers, many of whom belonged to the BJP and the VHP. This was
on June 27th, when a ‘fast-track court’, set up specifically for a quick trial,
released all within just over a year.
The judge’s lack of
judgment came as a shock to the country and particularly the Muslim community,
as the Best Bakery Case (BBC) was the best-documented case of the Gujarat 2002
pogrom. During the year since the 14 were burnt (and hacked) to death in the
Best Bakery in Vadodara on March 1-2, 2002, survivors publicly named those who
attacked them. They petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
filed affidavits before the Commission of Inquiry, deposed before the Concerned
Citizens Tribunal, and traveled to Delhi to speak to the media. It was the one
case where almost all the accused were in jail. Evidence was aplenty for all who
desired to see it. But the criminal judge decided to proceed to go according to
the face-value of the witnesses, all of whom turned hostile under police/BJP
pressure and threats.
The key witnesses,
the daughter and wife of the Best Bakery owner (who had died a year earlier) was
escorted into and out of the court by the BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastav. Later, at a
Mumbai press conference, organized by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP),
Zahira and her mother Sehrunissa Sheikh, stated that this MLA and his cousin,
the Congress Corporator, Chandrakant Shrivastav, had continuously
threatened them. Some of the witnesses were so terrorized that they went so far
as to call the accused as their "saviours". Now Zahira and her mother, who had
seen with their own eyes their family members being burnt to death, have openly
declared that their court statements were given under duress and that there
should be a retrial outside Gujarat.
Now this cry for a
retrial has been taken up by a wide section of liberals and the media. But, is
this not a mirage? Can one expect real justice from the very pillars of the
establishment that promote such atrocities? There is nothing wrong in making
this demand, but to pin one’s hope on it may result in further frustration given
the recent track record of the establishment, including the judiciary. If one
were to look at the extreme bias in all that has taken place in post-pogrom
Gujarat, there is little likelihood of the victims getting justice from the
establishment.
An example of this
can be seen in comparing the attitude of the rulers towards the Godhra incident
to that towards the post-Godhra pogrom.
In the Godhra case
over 100 Muslims have been arrested under POTA. In the carnage that followed not
a single Hindu has been arrested under POTA. POTA gives witnesses protection and
allows the record of evidence in camera. In Godhra the police used Section 164
of the IPC to depositions of witnesses recorded before a judicial magistrate
(such statements are difficult to retract on). In the BBC the police did not get
even one recorded under this section. Now that the Hindutva gangsters have got
off free in the best documented case, one can well imagine what will be the fate
of the other cases like the Narodya Pandya case (83 butchered), the Gulbarg
Society case (42 murdered) and the Sardarpura case (38 killed), etc. In rural
Gujarat the trials are even more of a farce. The Commonwealth Human Rights
Initiative said: "Prosecutors are playing the role of the defence. They make
sure the case falls through. There is no decorum in the court. People jeer while
witnesses relate incidents of rape or murder. The accused keep shouting that
they should be freed......"
Then, the Gujarat
government appointed a two-man Commission, which has been blatantly biased
against the Muslims. One of its members, K.G. Shah, has open saffron leanings.
And as far as the other member, Justice Nanavati, even before the completion of
the investigation, he made a public statement, in end May, that there was no
evidence of police complicity in the riots nor involvement of the VHP/Bajrang
Dal. Also this Commission spent two months in hearings in the Godhra case, and
spared only one or two days in the other places. While all the Godhra hearings
took place in camera, those of the post-Godhra events were held publicly, with
officials and police providing an intimidating presence. For example, of the 204
witnesses examined in Vadodra, 201 spoke in favour of the police. The place of
the hearing was packed with 50 police vans. Most of the witnesses who testified
were brought by the police. Local human rights groups boycotted the hearings; so
also did the victims.
So, what justice can
one expect from these institutions of the state? Even the High courts and the
Supreme Court of the country have been passing blatantly anti-people judgments.
The Supreme Court, has in the Babri Masjid case, been taking an openly pro-Hindutva
stand. Democrats have consistently argued that the criteria of deciding the
legality of any structure cannot be based on what existed there centuries back.
That, one would think is common sense; or else any and every structure could be
pulled down on the basis of excavations — and if the Hindutva brigade discovered
something there 500 years back, while the Buddhists found something at the same
spot 1000 years back, who then should the land belong to? The fact that nothing
was found there is irrelevant to the basis of the argument — the Supreme
Court gave the order for excavation after the Hindutva mafia claimed to have
discovered some items through the help of a Japanese firm. In Tamilnadu the
High Court upheld the passing of ESMA and the dismissal by the Jayalalita
government of 1.7 lakh striking employees and the arrest of many of its leaders.
It is clear that
little justice can be expected from the courts today. With the Hindutva bias of
much of the establishment this is more so with regards to Muslims in the
country. In this case, while fighting for the demand for a retrial, it is more
important for all the democratic people to organize a powerful force against the
Hindu fascists, and mete out punishment to these criminals and their sponsors in
people’s courts. The only way to get justice is not by wailing before the
authorities, but by seizing it through a show of force.
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