Justice Denied in the Bathani Tola massacre of Dalits case

source: http://blogs.halabol.com/2012/04/19/justice-denied

Justice Denied

19 Apr 2012

By V B RAWAT

The acquittal of 23 accused in the Bathani Tola massacre of the 21 Dalits in 1996 by Patna High Court yesterday is a not only shocking but complete miscarriage of justice. The Patna High Court virtually over turned a trial court judgment in Ara which convicted 23 accused with death penalty in May 2010.

It must be recalled that on July 11th, 1996, Bathani tola in district Bhojpur was attacked by the Ranvir Sena people hailing from upper caste landed peasantry community of Bhumihars. Bihar’s political parties as well as upper caste intelligentsia felt that the Dalits are now asserting because Naxalites or Maoists have infiltrated in the villages to instigate them against the upper caste feudal landlords. To counter this assertion, the upper caste Bhumihars also decided to form a militia of their own named as Ranvir Sena.

The Dalits have been fighting for their land rights and minimum wages for working in the land of these feudal landlords, much to their discomfort. This incident happened in broad day light around 2 pm in which old, young, men women and even children were brutally massacred but police and the authorities took several hours to reach the place. The people knew it that their protection was not possible depending on people and therefore they had already fled from the village.

Is it not ironic that the investigation process was delayed under the pretext that none of the relative of the victims, dead or alive have registered an FIR against the accused. Sound ridiculous but these grave facts reflect our pattern of our law and working of our investigating agencies. By the time you wait for an FIR, many vital clues are already wiped. Secondly, how can you expect people who have been threatened, frightened and finally killed, to file cases against the murderers? Did the police and authorities not know these facts as what is the grave challenge the poor people face in Bihar? Do the police not know why Ranvir Sena was formed in 1994? The fact is that the many political leaders in Bihar had tacitly supported these goons to influence the powerful Bhumihar vote on their side.

The High Court’s judgment is technical when it says that there was no evidence. What kind of evidence the court want? There are direct evidences and there are indirect evidences. When a Delhi court released the accused in the Jessica Lal Murder case, the Times of India’s front paged the story with ‘No one Killed Jessica’ and so inspiring was the headline that a Hindi film was also made on that line. Today, we do not find newspapers screaming on the issue. There are no TV panel discussions or front paged news analysis of this incident. It reflects the society that we are in India which has high prejudices and where the deaths of landless Dalits do not make headlines.

Media focus has always helped issues not only in getting it highlighted but also taking it to a logical conclusion. Whether it is Jessica Lal’s case or Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, media has highlighted the issue in public life and the higher courts have taken note of the issue finally turning the lower court’s judgments upside down. Disappointingly, this time, the higher court has given space to the power elite to breath despite their foul play. But, one can only hope that the apex court will definitely not allow this miscarriage of justice and pull up the state apparatus of Bihar for their negligence in duty and providing evidence.

Bhumihars are a powerful caste which not only own land but control politics also in Bihar. They have substantial chunk of ‘intellectual lawyers', journalists too who have been able to support these incidents under other pretexts. At the moment, no time should be wasted in technicalities. The state government must approach efficient lawyers as well as make a fool proof case in the Supreme Court. We all know that Ranvir Sena has a formidable support base in not only media but also in the political circle.

Sena chief Brahmeswar Singh is already out from jail on July 9th, 2011. He faces charges in 22 criminal cases for murder and massacre killing over 277 persons. He was arrested in 2002 and since then his well wishers and supporters have been attempting to get him bail.

It is not ironic that both the release of Brahmeswar Siingh and now the acquittal of the accused in Bathni Tola massacre do not catch the eyeball of media. And Singh remain free even today as state of Bihar does not bother to take the case further. Let us see how long Bihar government will wait to take this issue further to the Supreme Court to get the people of Bathni Tola justice.

If the state government fails to take immediate steps then it is sure that Bihar is again getting ready for a new form of bloody caste war. Who will be responsible for this? We have not heard anything from the ‘honest’ chief minister Nitish Kumar. It seems that media has played very well the Nitish ‘good’ ‘governance’ and completely ignored the issue of justice and fair-play.

The Bihar government must not play politics with this heinous crime against humanity and immediately prepare a strong case in the Supreme Court. It is also time for changing our criminal laws and the onus on proving a crime should not rest with the state or central police only. It is now advisable that human rights organizations and victims also should be allowed to intervene in the case so that it could be taken to a logical conclusion.

Patna High Court’s judgment shocked all who trusted rule of law and impeccability of higher judiciary. We will now have to wait for the Supreme Court to give justice to all the victims. The media reporting has only aggravated the pain. It is time to introspect