India: Hashimpura custodial killings - Delhi High Court ruling of 31 oct 2018 - multiple commentaries

Hashimpura verdict exposes India’s criminal justice system
Madhav Khosla 5 November, 2018

Lapses and gaps in the investigation process covered all aspects of the Hashimpura case.

The Delhi High Court’s verdict in the case involving custodial killings in Hashimpura over three decades ago is an important moment for the rule of law in India. It reminds us of where things stand.

India’s criminal justice system is notoriously broken, and no systemic reform is in sight. Countless reports of police reform lie untouched, the capacity and functioning of trial courts is a matter with no short-term political rewards, and most elite actors who have the power to initiate change in the system – across the legal and political domains – have little interest in initiating such change. The age-old secret of Indian legal reform has been that no actor capable of enabling reform has a stake in doing so, and the criminal justice system exemplifies that tragedy.

The facts of the Hashimpura case are familiar, perhaps even all too familiar. The month during which the event occurred – May 1987 – had witnessed communal riots, the posting of security forces, and the arrests of hundreds. The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) rounded up 42-45 Muslim men and shot them at sight. Only five survived. FIRs were filed, the case was transferred to Delhi, a trial took place where all the accused were acquitted. When the acquittal judgment was delivered by the lower court, it had been 28 years since the event.
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https://theprint.in/opinion/hashimpura-verdict-exposes-indias-criminal-justice-system/145304/

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Hashimpura: 31 years after custodial massacre of Muslims by men in uniform, justice is incomplete - By Harsh Mander (Nov 2, 2018, Scroll.in)

[ . . .] On October 31, a bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justices S Murlidhar and Vinod Goel set aside the trial court judgment of 2015 that had acquitted 16 soldiers of the Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Armed Constabulary for their role in the murder of the men. The court instead sentenced them to imprisonment for the rest of their lives. “We hold that this was targeted killing by armed forces of the unarmed, innocent and defenceless members of a particular community,” the judges said.

October 31 will therefore go down as a day of great significance, a moment of redemption, not just in India’s judicial history but also in the country’s rocky moral journey as a secular and just land. The story of what is probably independent India’s biggest case of custodial killing has been a blisteringly shameful one, of murderous hatred and religious prejudice by men in uniform, of disgraceful cover-ups by the executive at the highest levels in the central and state governments, of the deliberate destruction of evidence, of media apathy, and of communal bias, prevarication and unconscionable delays in the judiciary.[ . . . ]

…even today, 31 years after the custodial massacre by men in uniform, justice is still only partial. The foot soldiers will perhaps spend their remaining lives in jail. The 64 officers found guilty by the Crime Branch-Central Investigation Department of ordering or enabling the killing, those who destroyed the evidence, those senior political and police leaders who protected the killers, all have escaped punishment.…

https://scroll.in/article/900594/hashimpura-31-years-after-custodial-massacre-of-muslims-by-men-in-uniform-justice-is-incomplete

SEE ALSO:

Hashimpura Massacre in India: is justice delayed, justice denied? - By Manira Chaudhary (Nov 2, 2018, TRT World)
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/hashimpura-massacre-in-india-is-justice-delayed-justice-denied-21300
Justice After 31 Years in Hashimpura, But Endless Wait For Families of 72 Muslims Killed in Maliyana - By Abdul Alim Jafri (Oct 31, 2018, Times of India)
https://www.newsclick.in/articles/Hashimpura%20Massacre

Ending impunity: on Hashimpura massacre - Editorial (Nov 1, 2018, The Hindu)
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/ending-impunity/article25383440.ece
Hashimpura's scars - Editorial (Nov 2, 2018, Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/hashimpura-massacre-1987-killings-5430148/