Kherlanji Verdict –What Next?
By Ravikiran Shinde
16 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The Nagpur High Court bench's verdict on Kherlanji of diluting the 6
culprits' of death sentences given by Bhandara session court and
refusal to accept it as caste based killings by removing the SC/ST
Atrocity (PoA) act provisions proves one thing - There is no support
for Dalits in any form. They incur Social Apathy, Police Apathy,
Government Apathy, Media Apathy and now the Judicial Apathy.
None of the above social segments were either willing or able to help
the Kherlanji victims get due and proper justice. Dalits across the
state had started one of the most apolitical agitation post Kharilanji
in late 2006. The fact that this was a caste killing based on the
age-old caste abuse by the villagers on the Bhootmange's – given the
latter's attempt to gain self esteem in a typical wicked minded
village mentality - was crystal clear. The gruesome act of eliminating
the entire family on 29th Sep 2006 by first raping the females in full
public view and then even raping their dead corpse as pointed out in
independent inquiries and fact finding teams, lead to only one
conclusion - this was none other than caste based killings and formed
the rarest of the rare case deserving capital punishment.
But the honorable High Court has turned a blind eye to the implicit
details and delivered its judgment purely based on the weak evidence
furnished before it by the prosecution. It can be argued that the
court is not to be blamed here for this awful judgment for it is
merely supposed to go by books and prosecution (read CBI and the State
government) is guilty of purposefully weakening the case.
But what about media - Read the reports immediately after the massacre
(Dainik Lokmat newspaper especially). It was termed as killing
resulting out of illicit relation between Surekha (the mother) and her
cousin (Siddharth Gajbhiye). Here too the media simply went by the
oppressors version and literally justified the killing. Now, can we
charge the media of maligning the image of the deceased mother? Is the
media ready to apologize? When a court delivers not so harsh sentence
to Haryana former DGP SPS Rathore in the Ruchica molestation case, the
entire media pounces on the judgment and it formed the headlines for
days. But no media wants to take cognizance of this lighter sentence
for Bhootmange killers. If Bhootmangses were Joshis or Abhyankar or
even Guptas, they probably would have probably taken due cognizance of
it, apparently.
It is better not to talk about Police in general and the government in
particular. R. R Patil headed ministry is definitely short of ideas to
deal with this situation and merely went by the local police versions
who were trying to cover up the story and the post mortem. Where was
the human angle, or soft touch given the bhootmange, at least for the
sake of votes. Again, no willingness or Ability to go an extra mile.
It will be futile to expect anything from the Congress- NCP government
that is still shielding the killer cop Manohar Kadam who mercilessly
and indiscriminately shot 11 dalit youths in Ghatkopar in July 1997.
The Gundewar commission set up by the state, concluded that the Tanker
theory (that the mob was on its way to torch the LPG tanker) was
absurd and the police firing was uncalled for. Manohar Kadam remains
scot free. In both the cases the culprits were from Powerful Maratha,
OBC castes who forms the base of Congress and NCP in the state and
they could not take any action against them by siding with
the dalits.
What a shame! Such was the wreath of the Dalits against the then
Sena-BJP post Ghatkopar in 1997 that they single handedly backed
Sharad Pawar and gave him 36 out of 48 MPs from the state to make him
leader of the opposition in 1998. Dalits now realize how awfully wrong
they were to side with Congress and NCP on the Ramabai Nagar killings.
Now, there will be a challenge to this Kherlanji verdict in the Apex
court and few more years will be wasted. Finally, there will be no end
to the lone survivor Bhiyyalal bhootmange's agony. The public memory
will fade away gradually and the politicians will thrive on it. The
fact that state government who fights cases such as Mumbai Blast and
26/11 on its own had to hand over the Kheralanji case to CBI is
perplexing. Why noted lawyer Adv. Ujjwal Nikam with 100% track record
failed to successfully figfht for it till end tend or perhaps he
himself escaped Systematically.
What is very ironic is the fact that the intellects from OBC community
whose battle Dalits fight on the street whether it is regarding OBC
reservations or Caste census, are conspicuous by their silence on this
entire Kherlanji episode.
This is a grave tragedy. What option does this leave the oppressed
community with in a civil society?
This is a vital question is for all of us.
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