Life comes cheap in India: Court orders compensation for Bilkis Bano say Rs 24500 per month x 17 years

The long fight: Bilkis Bano gets a measure of compensation

April 27, 2019, 2:01 am IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page, India | TOI

What happened to Bilkis Bano in Gujarat in March 2002 was horrific. Her story since then has been difficult but heroic, her triumphs inspirational. Against high odds, including illiteracy and state hostility, she won the convictions of men who had gang-raped her and murdered her family as well as of those who tried to bury her case illegally. Further, this Tuesday the Supreme Court granted her one of the largest compensations to a victim of sexual assault and rape in India, Rs 50 lakh.
This is of course in sharp contrast to the Rs 5 lakh that had been offered to her by the Gujarat government. Compensating victims is an important component of criminal justice. As Bilkis said, what the apex court did was acknowledge the pain that she had endured for 17 years. It sent the clear signal that the state cannot be allowed to flagrantly violate a citizen’s rights but must protect them, which was important to her as she never lost faith in the Constitution and the justice system.
The daughter with whom Bilkis was pregnant when she was gang-raped, wants to be a lawyer. By word and example, her husband advises that men should stand by women. And this week, she also cast her vote for the first time since 2002. In her, the horrific Gujarat riots have forged an iron spirit that will inspire other embattled women to fight for justice, especially when it looks out of reach.

India: After 17 years, rape survivor Bilkis Bano got justice. A story of courage and resilience

Huffington Post - India 25/04/2019

 

'My Daughter Will Be A Lawyer,' Says Bilkis Bano After Historic Compensation

Bilkis Bano, who was gang raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, never gave up on seeking justice.

• By Betwa Sharma

NEW DELHI — Seventeen years after she was gang raped during the Gujarat riots in 2002, Bilkis Bano thanked the Supreme Court for ordering the state government to pay her compensation worth Rs. 50 lakh — the highest compensation given to a rape survivor in India.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Bilkis said, “The Supreme Court has acknowledged the pain that I have endured for 17 years. That is important to me.”
“This was a long fight but I have never lost faith in the Constitution and the justice system,” she said.  [ . . . ]

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/my-daughter-will-be-a-lawyer-says-bilkis-bano-after-historic-compensation_in_5cc0a7bee4b01b6b3efbe5a2https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/my-daughter-will-be-a-lawyer-says-bilkis-bano-after-historic-compensation_in_5cc0a7bee4b01b6b3efbe5a2

India: The payment of compensation to Bisada accused’s kin sets a dangerous precedent (Lalita Panicker, Hindustan Times | Oct 13, 2016)

Hindustan Times

Lalita Panicker | Oct 13, 2016

A potentially explosive situation is evolving in Bisada, which was in news recently for the death in custody of an accused in the Mohammed Ikhlaq murder. Ikhlaq was beaten to death in 2015 by cow vigilantes on suspicion of storing beef in his fridge. The case has taken several twists and turns since with the families of the accused seeking the arrest of the murdered man’s family and communal passions being raised over the issue of cow protection.

A massive condolence meeting is to be held for the accused Ravin who died in custody. Apprehending trouble the authorities have imposed Section 144 on the area prohibiting any large gathering. However, the villagers have paid scant heed to this and invited people from 144 Rajput villages in western UP to attend the October 19 meeting. They are doing this in violation of the law. Instead of saying clearly that they will not allow this, the police seem ambiguous saying that they will see how things go. The whole issue has been mishandled from start to finish.

It is unclear how the accused died. The National Human Rights Commission has sought to know how this happen and has asked the police officers concerned for an answer. The next was that the relatives of the dead man demanded and received compensation though not as much as they asked for.

They refused to cremate the body and draped it in the Tricolor. The payment of compensation is a dangerous precedent. The man was accused of taking part in a brutal murder though his guilt or innocence has not been not established. The circumstances of his death should have been investigated but instead the state seems to admit its complicity in his death by giving out compensation.

Politicians have been fishing in troubled waters by visiting the relatives of the dead man further complicating the matter. This will now clearly become a political issue and matters are likely to go out of hand unless the district administration makes it clear that it will not allow any violation of the law.

India: Compensation most foul

The Indian Express

Compensation most foul

The UP government’s move to pay relief to the family of an accused in the Dadri lynching turns the principle of justice on its head.

Written by Apoorvanand | Published:October 12, 2016 12:00 am

Compensation to Muslims in the wake of communal violence has always been an issue with Hindus. (Illustration by: C R Sasikumar) October 8 will be remembered as the date when India crossed the Rubicon. Nothing as dramatic as the “surgical strikes” happened on this day.
On this date, the government of Uttar Pradesh decided to award a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the family of Ravin Sisodia, a resident of Bisara, a village in Dadri. Sisodia died in jail due to multiple organ failure. The doctors and the forensic report concluded that it was a natural death. Sisodia wasn’t in jail for some petty crime. Last year, he was allegedly part of the crowd which dragged a Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, out of his house and killed him. Akhlaq’s death raised indignation across the nation and led to a wave of protests initiated by writers against the state-sponsored intolerance directed at minorities.
Only one death. An insignificant figure when compared with the numbers of Muslims killed in Bhagalpur or Nellie or Gujarat or the Sikhs killed in 1984 in Delhi and elsewhere. But the shock it generated was felt across the nation. The act and its fallout played a major role in the assembly election of Bihar. The death of Akhlaq was a result of the complete failure, not only of the state’s organs, but also of our polity. It was because of the realisation of the enormity of this failure that the UP government gave a huge compensation to the family of Akhlaq.
Compensation to Muslims in the wake of communal violence has always been an issue with Hindus. I would call this compensation envy or compensation complex — which neighbours of the Muslim victims suffer from. We have heard complaints — most recently in Muzaffarnagar — that Muslims are, in fact, beneficiaries of communal violence.
indus feel deprived and they believe that the violence is in fact invited by the Muslims themselves for this compensation. They allege that Muslims burn their houses for state money. It also leads to a hatred for Muslims as they are seen helpless, seeking alms from the state and unable to fend for themselves. They are looked down upon as lesser human beings living off the money of the Hindus, who are the real and major taxpayers.
The compensation for the death of Akhlaq was made an issue by the leaders of the BJP and the villagers. Violent campaigns in the name of cow protection even after this death continued across states which caused humiliation and claimed more Muslim lives. All this led the villagers of Bisara to feel that killing of Akhlaq was a just and pious act. The fiction of the killing of a cow and eating beef turned into fact through a sustained campaign. Within a year, Akhlaq and his family were converted from victims into accused and suspects. They had by their alleged act of killing of a cow, sacred to Hindus, instigated and lead the Hindus to express their anger which led to the death of Akhlaq. The courts have directed the authorities to file a criminal case against the family of Akhlaq.
In the imagination of the villagers of Bisara, Sisodia and others became victims and heroes at the same time. We have seen agitation by the villagers of Bisara demanding their release and withdrawal of cases against them. A similar agitation is going on in Muzaffarnagar. These agitations are led by locals blessed by the RSS and the BJP. The BJP has decided to remove the fig leaf: Its leaders openly address the revenge-seeking crowd and generate a sense of injustice and anger in them.
Sisodia was a taxi driver. Did he actually participate in the killing? It was yet to be decided. But he was an accused. And he died due to an illness awaiting trail. Are such deaths compensated by the state? We know the answer. But the UP government thought otherwise. By giving in to bullying by the kin of the accused — who refused to cremate Sisodia if their demand was not met — the government has created a dangerous precedent. What is also unique in this affair is the arrangement through which this figure has been achieved. The state government pays Rs 10 lakh, 10 lakh will be given by some NGOs and five lakh by Union minister Mahesh Sharma and Sangeet Som, a BJP MLA who is also an accused in the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar. It was a deal brokered by the minister. The state government agreed as it did not want the impression that Hindu deaths didn’t matter to go in an election year. We need to notice that the state government sheepishly allowed its jurisdiction to be violated by the Central minister.
Involvement of NGOs in this compensation package is an innovation. Why was this done?
Did the state government not have sufficient funds? What is the Central minister’s contribution doing here? This single act is a complete capitulation and surrender of its authority by the UP government. It will have grave implications for the principle of division of powers between the states and the Centre. It is also an act that informalises governance.
Muslims in India are quite used to majoritarian violence against them. They are aware of the general reluctance of the authorities and the politicians to ensure justice in such cases. They have also witnessed campaigners of hatred and violence against them reach the highest offices. The only consolation has been that these acts violence are recognised as wrong — the violation of the constitutional promise given to them. October 8 changed that in significant ways. The principle behind state compensation was turned on its head. This was not an act of compassion shown by the state towards one of its citizens. It also negates the crime committed last year and vindicates the stand of the villagers and the BJP.
The government of UP is led by the heir of a man who as the chief minister did not hesitate to order firing on a Hindu mob which threatened to destroy a Muslim place of worship. He only felt bound by the constitutional morality which asked him to preserve the rights of the minorities.
This act reminded one of the letter by Jawaharlal Nehru to Padmaja Naidu from Patna in 1946. He had returned from Bhagalpur, which was in the grip of communal frenzy and Hindus were attacking and killing Muslims. Nehru writes that he was horrified by the madness of the Hindu peasants but what brought some solace to him that the security forces opened fire to stop them. In the firing, some 400 Hindus were killed.
Nehru tells Naidu that he generally abhorred killing but somehow this act seemed to restore a semblance of balance in favour of the victim Muslims. Nehru’s vision was instrumental in shaping our constitutional morality: To stand firmly for the rights of the minorities, undeterred by the threat of the numbers.
Indian state seems to have travelled far from 1946 and 1990. The only question minorities have now, when it would throw away the fig leaf of secularism and show itself as it really is.

The writer teaches Hindi at Delhi University

Bhagalpur riot victims to get back land

Bhagalpur riot victims to get back land: District administration
Santosh Singh : Patna, Wed Dec 04 2013

Seventeen families who fled their homes after the 1989 Bhagalpur riots may finally get back their plots of land. "Our team will visit Garhotia on Thursday to restore all 17 plots... to the families," said Bhagalpur District Magistrate Prem Singh Mina.

This comes a day after The Indian Express reported that despite the Bihar government's claims, the land in Garhotia village is yet to be restored to its owners. Instead, the land, adding up to 7,405 square feet, is controlled by 75-year-old Patel Yadav, who has been illegally tilling it for the last 24 years.

Mina said the district administration has already got a written undertaking from Yadav stating that he will vacate the land. "All 17 families will be given fresh land possession papers, and the records will be updated," he said.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bhagalpur-riot-victims-to-get-back-land-district-administration/1203314/

India: The chilling familiarity of Muzaffarnagar [and a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence] Farah Naqvi

The Hindu, September 18, 2013

The chilling familiarity of Muzaffarnagar

by Farah Naqvi

Riot follows riot with sickening regularity but there is only a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence and guarantee justice and compensation to victims

In communal politics, facts matter less than fiction. The spin and narrative are what make “riots” unique — violence sought to be justified, even warranted, then forgotten. “Riots” are always about the blame-game that follows; the action-reaction theory; the rationalisation for what is indefensible — the taking of human life, the rendering homeless of innocents, and the inevitable polarisation benefiting political parties. With social media, mobile apps, and image morphing software a flick of a button away, the ammunition of spin is handy. But though technology is new, the narrative is frighteningly familiar. Women as commodities (of a piece with land and cattle), and women’s bodies as repositories of patriarchal honour are once again at the epicentre of this narrative.
On the ground

This belt of western Uttar Pradesh is the home turf of the “dis-honor” killings, where the sex ratio is among India’s lowest (Muzaffarnagar has a child sex ratio of 863 in the 2011 census); where the narrative of “women’s honour” can be stirred so easily into the communal cauldron. Even the recent national outrage over increasing violence against women has been appropriated and deployed. One headline in a prominent internet news site screamed “Stalker’s death triggered Muzaffarnagar conflagration,” implicitly justifying the murder of someone the reporter decided to call a “stalker,” though there was no evidence or charge of stalking (a serious crime after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013) in the incident of August 27. The story opened with, Two brothers kill a man stalking their sister [….] The actions by “the brothers” were in this and many other variations normalised, even tacitly valorised. For that is what “real men” do when family honour is on the line. It is precisely the mindset that applauds the death penalty for rape, knowing it will solve nothing systemic. But who cares, for it satisfies the blood lust.

The mahapanchayat on September 7, in violation of prohibitory orders, is variously reported as Beti Bachao Bahu Bachao mahapanchayat or Beti Bahu Izzat Bachao mahapanchayat. “Izzat (honour”) and “Bachao (protect”) are scary words in the macho lexicon of western U.P. Here, women’s sexuality is a tool to be deployed only in service to community and patriarchy. Sexual autonomy is a threat to the entire edifice, and opposing intercommunity relationships (signalling choice and sexual autonomy) has long been a favourite pastime for the khaps that rule the roost. Many such intercommunity relationships, ending in murder, have been inter-caste. Now with inter-religious romance labelled “love jihad” under the Vishwa Hindu Parishad scanner, we need to be worried and watchful, as this game of izzat plays itself out. The “love jihad” construct of the Hindu right in one stroke raises the spectre of the “violent, enemy other, seducing by force” (Muslim jihadist) and condemns personal choice (i.e. “love”). And when protection and control over “our” women’s bodies are placed at the centre of any blood feud, one must fear the ground that communalists of all hues are preparing in the fertile soil of western U.P.

Gujarat and U.P.

The comparisons between the “narratives” of Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar are telling. In Muzaffarnagar, an alleged attack by the “other community” on the izzat of two brothers (by harassing their sister) turns out to be fake (NDTV, September 14). But it still leads to a mahapanchayat called to protect “the honour of women.” This then spurs the violence (with inflammatory speeches, incendiary video, death and displacement, police inaction, omnibus FIRs, and truckloads of scared people fleeing their homes).

We saw a similar narrative structure in Gujarat 2002, and it was written about in two reports by women’s rights activists — Survivors Speak and Threatened Existence. In addition to the train burning at Godhra, there was a false news report on February 28 in Sandesh (a leading Gujarati daily), saying that Hindu women were dragged from a railway compartment by a fanatic mob. A fake follow-up on March 1, said some women’s bodies were found with breasts cut off. A retraction, published much later by Sandesh, lay buried in a corner of the paper, while the fake news spread like wildfire, and became the justificatory rallying cry for what followed (Survivors Speak, pp 10-11). All of this — from Gujarat to Muzaffarnagar — is of a piece with the existing stock repertoire of the Hindu right — stories and myths about Muslim marauders, raping and defiling Hindu women, and by conflation, attacking the “izzat” of Mother India herself, provide eternal justification for “honorable” retaliation by Hindu men and the Hindu nation (Threatened Existence, p.39).

Protecting rights

Thus far, Muzaffarnagar has taken lives, devastated livelihoods and displaced at last count over 55,000 people. Thus far, women’s bodies are at the centre of the narrative, not the centre of the violence that has been reported. But, at the time of writing, unconfirmed stories are coming in, and fact-finding teams are still digging up “the truth.” So let us not be lulled. It is alarming when the Home Minister says that only 410 communal incidents occurred in the country last year, but this year, already 451 incidents have taken place. What world do we live in where 410 incidents big and small are an “only”? An acceptable number? And yet, amid the pro forma condemnations, calls for peace and the Prime Minister’s announcement of Rs.2 lakh for the next of kin of those killed, there is a deathly silence on the one piece of legislation promised in the United Progressive Alliance’s manifesto — the Communal Violence Bill. A draft Bill, crafted from the experience of victims and survivors of many communal carnages, sits on the back-burner, while we watch one communal incident after another. We hear pleas from survivors. We rail helplessly at loopholes in our statutory frameworks that allow state inaction and dereliction at the cost of lives; that make displaced and violated citizens plead and grovel for justice and compensation from state authorities. So much would have been citizens’ rights by law if such a bill were in place today.

Or, is the intent to simply allow things to go on as they are? One incident to the next, with no learning, with no dent in impunity; no movement towards an architecture of rights for innocents routinely hurt by this violence, and by the threats that women face? Can we afford to persist with this state of denial — imagining that communal violence is a thing of the past; that an aspirational India has moved beyond identity fault-lines? Let us remind ourselves of fearful people running from their homes and confront the reality that they may languish in camps of one kind or another in perpetuity, like scores of victims of communal carnages before them, with no justiciable framework of rights, no justice.

While there is silence on a law to challenge impunity, new slogans of communalism are being crafted everyday, embellishing the core of the “honour” narrative. The latest from Muzaffarnagar according to one news report (HT, Lucknow, September 13), throws cow slaughter and, perhaps predictably, Modi into the fray — “desh, bahu aur gai ko bachana hai toh Narendra Modi ko lana hai.”

(Farah Naqvi, a writer and activist, is a member of the National Advisory Council. The views expressed are personal. E-mail: farah.naqvi64@yahoo.com)

India: HLRN Report seeks full compensation for victims of Kandhamal riots

The Hindu
BHUBANESWAR, June 8, 2013

Report seeks full compensation for victims of Kandhamal riots

Special Correspondent

A report titled 'Unjust Compensation' prepared by Housing and Land Rights Network highlighting property losses of private individuals during the Kandhamal riots, in Bhubaneswar on Friday.—Photos: Lingaraj Panda

Centre for Sustainable Use of Social and Natural Resources (CSNR), Bhubaneswar, and Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), Delhi, on Friday released a report on the compensation paid to the families that had suffered damage and loss of property during the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in 2007 and 2008.

The report noted that though the State government provided immediate relief, compensation for ‘damaged houses’ and death, it did not enumerate and provide compensation for the loss of property (other than housing) such as household articles, vital documents (like educational certificates, land records), agricultural equipment, utensils, clothes, agricultural and forest produce, livestock, poultry, and livelihood-related losses.

The government was not having a policy to assess and compensate such losses.

The report was released here by Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing.

The panel also consisted of Dhirendra Panda, Secretary, CSNR, Shivani Chaudhry, Associate Director, HLRN, and Prafulla Samantara and Nicholas Barla, human rights activists.

The findings of the impact assessment study revealed that the real costs and losses suffered by individuals and families who experienced destruction of their homes and property were immense. While extensive damage to property, both movable and immovable, had been reported, the State has only compensated families for loss of homes.

On the basis of the findings of this study, the report recommended to the State government to take immediate measures to adequately rehabilitate and resettle the victim-survivors of the Kandhamal violence.

The report further urged the government to ensure full reparation to those persons whose livelihoods were affected due to violence and strife.

The government should provide adequate financial assistance to those children whose education was affected because of destruction of books and educational material, unavailability of study material, loss of academic certificates, and inability to attend school during and after the violence, the report suggested.

It further said that the government should provide financial assistance to victim-survivors whose documents of land and property were destroyed and facilitate the process to obtain alternative documents.

The government should develop a new policy for victim-survivors of violence due to conflict, such as in the case of Kandhamal, and implement it immediately, the report said, while urging the government to prepare a long-term strategy to protect and promote secularism and non-casteism in Odisha.

Dhule Victims And Anhad Files A PIL in Supreme Court Demanding SIT and Compensation

PRESS RELEASE

28 January 2013

A Writ Petition (PIL), under Article 32 of the Constitution of India was filed today by Mohammad G. Naseer, who is the father of the deceased Asim Ahmad aged 24 years, Asif Ali who is the elder brother of deceased Imran Ali aged 23 years and Anhad which reputed NGO working on issues relating to secularism and communal violence. This petition was filed in respect of the communal attack on Muslims at Dhule, Maharashtra on 6.1.2013 in which the police themselves participated in smashing the vehicles of the Muslim community, in setting fire to their shops and houses and in firing in such a manner that 6 persons were killed and 42 injured, all from the Muslim community. 35 houses were burnt to the ground and many shops were also burnt. After that the police registered FIRs against the Muslim community and it is only much later when the minority community raised a protest that complaints are being accepted by the police, but no FIR is being registered behalf of the Muslim community till date.

The PIL is seeking a direction from this Court for the establishment of an SIT investigate this incident in respect of the facts set out in the petition and prosecute the criminal offenders including police personnel and government officials in accordance with law and to pass an order directing the respondent to immediately pay Rs.25 lakhs to the next of the kin of the deceased, Rs. 15 lakhs to those disabled, Rs. 10 Lakhs to those injured with Police Bullets and suitable compensation to those whose houses, shops were burnt, looted and destroyed.

In support of the PIL, petitioner has annexed a citizen’s fact finding report which was released in January 2013. The fact finding committee consisted of Shabnam Hashmi from Anhad one of the Petitioner organization, Prof. Ram Punyani of the All India Secular Forum, Prof. Apoorvanand of Delhi University, Advocate Nihalsing B. Rathore and others. All of them are eminent names from the social fraternity. This report was prepared after the fact finding committee visited the area and met social, religious and political activists, government officials, the District Magistrate, the victims including the families of the deceased and injured, and people from different walks of life. The Committee members also visited the hospital and saw the records and visited the areas where the houses were burnt.

A minor skirmish which could easily have been handled by the police had they been sensitive escalated into a full-fledged attack on the minority community. The testimonies reveal that not only did the police not intervene but they told the people to settle scores directly and actively instigated the attacks on the minority community.

Then without making a preliminary effort to disperse the crowd using the public address system or tear gas or by resorting to a lathi charge, the police resorted to indiscriminate firing that lasted for more than 2 hours. This firing was resorted to not to disperse the mob but rather to cause fatal injury to members of the minority community. The actions of the police show that they were elements within the force who acted in a communal manner. This is evident from the video clipping showing policemen using their lathis to damage the scooters and other properties of the Muslim community and showing policemen throwing stones at the minority community and standing by watching members of the majority community throwing stones. Video footage showing policemen setting fire to the houses of the minority community and above mentioned incidents have been submitted to the Supreme Court.

For queries talk to: Tariq Adeeb- 93106 77131 / shabnam hashmi-9811807558

Assam riots of 2012: Displaced families in Kokrajhar struggle

From: The Hindu

BHOWRAGURI (KOKRAJHAR), November 7, 2012

Displaced families in Kokrajhar struggle to rebuild their lives

by Sushanta Talukdar


Compensation and ration inadequate, feel people of BTAD

Houses and granaries were razed, cattle and other livestock looted and hand tube-well heads taken away when violent clashes broke out in July in Kokrajhar and neighbouring districts of Assam forcing people to take shelter in relief camps.

After nearly three months’ stay in relief camps, the refugees have now returned home, thanks to the official rehabilitation process, with 21 tin sheets, a tarpaulin sheet, six pieces of bamboo, a cheque for Rs. 22,700 as rehabilitation grant and ration of rice, dal and salt to last them just a month. Most of these families have only one piece of blanket and no woollens though winter is knocking at the door.

Thousands of displaced families in Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) who have returned home are now grappling with endless woes of rehabilitation.
Yet to get grant

More than a week since their return from the camps, the displaced families of Dangaibari, the Muslim villages and Aminkhata and the nearby Bodo villages in Kokrajhar district have not been able to start any new cultivation. For, there are no cattle left and the miscreants have taken away tractors, power tillers and shallow tubewell pumpsets. Many families are yet to get the rehabilitation grant, while some who got it don’t have bank accounts to encash them.

At Dangaibari village, some families have constructed makeshift shelters with tarpaulin sheets and bamboos on their land. Some others have built a cluster of such shelters in an open area.

Village headman Sumer Ali told The Hindu on Monday that of the 74 families in the village, only 29 figure in the list for grant. Only 13 families have received the cheques and tin sheets. “We don’t know how to rebuild our lives. We are farmers but now we have no means to resume agricultural activities,” he said. “Every family has lost at least three or four houses. The materials and rehabilitation grant are inadequate even to build one semi-permanent structure to accommodate all the family members.”

Village anganwadi worker Sakila Khatun has reopened the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centre in the village. She said that about 100 children now regularly attend the centre, but they were not being provided food because miscreants had taken away all the utensils.
Tales of woe

The stories of 58-year-old headman Lalmohan Goyari and other residents of Aminkhata Bodo village are no different. “The miscreants took away the cattle, tractors and power tillers after razing our houses. How will we till our land now?” asks Mr. Goyari. His wife was seen clearing the debris and clearing the land for building a makeshift shelter. So far, 72 of the 133 families whose houses were destroyed have received rehabilitation grants.

The womenfolk and children of Aminkhata and adjacent Bodo villages are still staying in the Gambaribil relief camp although the authorities have closed it down. “The women come to the village to help clear the debris till 3 p.m. and then return to the camp. They can return only after some makeshift structure is raised,” said Mr. Goyari.

Be it Bodo or Muslim villages, the fear of fresh attack still lingers. Despite round-the-clock patrolling by contingents of the CRPF, the villagers are taking turns as night guards and sleep in groups.

A waiting shed at one entrance to Aminkhata village is the point where Muslims of nearby villages are allowed to come and discuss mutual issues with the village headman and other residents of the Bodo village. “We have agreed to divide the harvest from the paddy fields 50:50 with those from the nearby Muslim villages who worked as sharecroppers in our fields and cultivated paddy,” said Mr. Goyari, owner of 52 bigha of cultivable land.

However, the Bodo villages have clamped a ban on commercial transactions such as buying or selling of vegetables or other produce at the village markets with the residents of the nearby Muslim villages.

India: Pledge to provide jobs to survivors of 1984 anti Sikh riots unfulfilled

From: Hindustan Times

Manmohan Singh’s pledge to Sikh riot-hit unfulfilled
Harinder Baweja , Hindustan Times

New Delhi, November 03, 2012

In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced an enhanced rehabilitation package for survivors of the 1984 riots. “We cannot undo the past, but we have the option of building a better future. Let us help the Sikh community get over the trauma of 1984,’’ he had promised in a speech in Rajya
Sabha in 2005.

Soon after the PM’s announcement, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) had issued an order to various riot-affected states to provide jobs to the survivors, in addition to other ex-gratia payment.

It has been six years since the MHA order was issued on January 16, 2006, but the Delhi government is yet to provide a single job despite the fact that Delhi saw the maximum number of killings — 2,733 as per official records.

HS Phoolka, lawyer for the survivors, says, “One Sikh was killed every minute over 48 hours in Delhi, but the survivors are still running around in various government departments.” The Delhi government’s website substantiates the charge. It reads, “1,115 requests received in the office of the divisional commissioner, Delhi, since the announcement of the revised package in January 2006.” But the column for the number of people who have been provided employment, says, “not applicable’’.

An official in the divisional commissioner’s office also confirmed that no jobs have been provided.

So far, the Delhi government has issued offer letters, followed by showcause notices to various candidates. One such candidate Ajeet Singh, whose father was dragged out of his house and burnt alive in ’84, has submitted an affidavit affirming that nobody in his family has a government job (a prerequisite as per the guideline), but he has received no response to his written pleas addressed to the PM, the cabinet secretary and the chief secretary.

Another applicant, Rajvinder Kaur was rejected on the grounds that she had got married. Delhi divisional commissioner Dharam Pal says such cases can be reviewed. Asks Kulbir Singh, president, Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, an NGO helping the survivors, “Which door should we knock on now? We have sent reminders to everyone.”

Gujarat High court pulls up Modi govt's ‘inaction’ during 2002 riots; Repair and rehailitate religious structures

[posted below are reports from Indian Express and The Hindu]

From: Indian Express

Fix places of worship destroyed in 2002 riots, Guj HC to Modi

Parimal Dabhi : Ahmedabad, Wed Feb 08 2012, 13:16 hrs

The Gujarat High Court came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday, criticising it sharply for failing to stop the riots that broke out in 2002.

In a severe indictment of the chief minister, the court said the government had failed and showed negligence in protecting citizens and religious structures.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala was hearing a public interest litigation moved by the Islamic Relief Committee Gujarat, which sought payment for vandalised religious structures in the state.

The state had opposed this petition, stating it was not its policy, nor was it under any obligation, to repair religious structures that had been damaged in the riots.

The judges slammed this contention, stating the state machinery had completely failed to anticipate communal disturbance at that time, and had subsequently floundered in containing the riots. “The state's inaction resulted in the damage,” the bench held, ordering the government to “repair and rehabilitate” more than 500 damaged places of worship.

The court said when the government had paid compensation for damaged houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The high court also put in place a mechanism that will check and report the system of rehabilitation. It asked all claimants to approach all 26 principal district judges across the state in the next two months. The judges have to then clear claims in the next six months. The government has one month to reply to its order, the bench said.

The petitioner’s lawyer Yusuf Muchhala said their 2003 plea mainly relied on three reports of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which stated it was the duty of the government to protect places of worship, and in this instance, the government had failed to do so.

According to the petitioner, there are 294 religious places which were damaged fully or partially during the riots. However, Muchhala said the government has admitted there are around 595 such damaged structures.

Another lawyer M T M Hakim hailed it as a "landmark judgement" in the country. "This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the state government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots," Hakim said.

o o o

From: The Hindu
Ahmedabad, February 8, 2012

Gujarat HC raps Modi govt. for ‘inaction’ during post-Godhra riots
PTI

PTI Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court rapped the Modi government for "negligence” during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. File photo

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the State government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the State, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said.

The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The court also ordered that principal judges of 26 districts of the state will receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it. They have been asked to send their decisions to HC within six months.

IRCG’s petition in 2003 had sought court’s directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The state government had opposed the IRCG petition, saying it was a violation of article 27 of the Constitution.

The government further said that there was no policy with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.

Lawyer for IRCG, M.T.M. Hakim hailed it as a “landmark judgement” in the country, in which compensation has been ordered for destruction of religious structures.

“This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the State government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots,” Mr. Hakim said.

Speed up investigation on Hindutva terror and compensate innocents (edit. Times of India)

The Times of India, 12 January 2011

Editorial

Keep Politics Out

Malegaon in Maharashtra, the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan - belatedly but with gathering momentum, evidence is emerging of a network of fundamentalist Hindutva organisations behind them. Swami Aseemanand's December confession providing many of those details may now be disputed by his lawyer as having been made under duress, but it is not the only source of information. The National Investigation Agency has ferreted out a number of operational details related to the Samjhauta Express blast as well. Taken together - and added to information gleaned from the arrests of Lt Col Srikant Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur - we have an emerging picture of a threat serious enough that there can be no political gamesmanship over the issue as we are witnessing now.

The hopeful sign, however, is that if the emerging picture is correct, Malegaon, Mecca Masjid et al have been traced to a small group of extremists, and rolling them up at this point should stop the contagion from spreading. That is what we need to focus on. The BJP should no longer be in denial about saffron terror, but instead purge its ranks of those inclined to follow violent methods in pursuit of religious goals. To some extent the RSS has gone further than the BJP has. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's admission that some members of the Sangh had shown extremist tendencies and were consequently asked to leave is a step away from the Sangh Parivar's policy of absolute denial.

But the continuing political battle over semantics and vote banks misses the point entirely. Terrorism is terrorism; there is nothing to choose between the Islamist variety, greater in scope, and the Hindutva variety, more insidious in its effect on the country's socio-cultural fabric. As there has been a public outcry over laxity in dealing with cross-border terrorism - and subsequent attempts by the government to address the lacunae - so there must be an effort to close down the network of operatives from groups like Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.

While the BJP continues to be in denial on saffron terror the initial wrong turn taken by investigative agencies, which had started out by blaming Muslim extremist groups for the blasts, is an embarrassment for them as well. A good deal of time has elapsed since the blasts happened, and shoddy investigations risk losing vital evidence while pursuing innocent people. Investigative agencies should speed up their gathering of evidence and prosecution of the guilty, while innocents who were harassed deserve to be compensated.

Court orders Gujarat to disburse compensation for the 2002 riot affected

The Times of India

HC orders Guj to disburse Centre's riot package in 8 weeks
14 May 2009, 1752 hrs IST, PTI

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday ordered the state government to disburse within eight weeks the Rs 262.44 crore it received from
the Centre as relief package for 2002 post-Godhra riot victims.

The order was passed by division bench of Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice C K Buch while hearing a PIL.

The PIL was filed by Gangan Sethi, a member of Special Monitoring Group appointed by the National Human Rights Commission, and Yusuf Shaikh, convener of Vadodara-based NGO Antarik Visthapit Hakk-Rakshak Samiti.

The PIL filed in December last year had contended that Gujarat government has failed to disburse the Centre's relief package to family of over 1,169 people who died during the riots and over 2,549 victims who were injured in post-Godhra violence.

During an earlier hearing the state government had submitted before the court that it has got instructions from the Election Commission not to disburse the amount among riot victims till the elections was over.

The Centre had released 19.05% (Rs 50 crore) of the total amount at the end of 2008, following which the state government had ordered all district collectorates in January 2009 to disburse the amount within a month to the victims.

During the hearing the Centre had maintained that it had withheld Rs 212.44 crore because the Gujarat government had not reported utilization of the first installment of Rs 50 crore that were released in 2008.

The Centre had announced to provide additional ex-gratia towards relief and rehabilitation to victims of 2002 communal riots in Gujarat on September 11, 2007.

According to the state government, as many as 29,467 families were affected and 11,237 houses got damaged in urban area while 18,230 residential properties were either demolished or damaged in rural areas across the state during the post-Godhra riots.

o o o

The Hindu
May 14, 2009

Gujarat riot victims to receive compensation soon

Ahmedabad (IANS): The Gujarat High Court on Thursday ordered the State government to expedite distribution of compensation amounting to Rs 262.44 crore to the victims of communal violence of 2002.

The court order came following a bunch of petitions filed by the riot victims saying they were yet to receive the compensation released by the Central government through the State government.

A State government representative told the court during the hearing of the petitions on Thursday that the State government could not distribute the compensation as the model code of conduct was in place during the Lok Sabha elections.

The restrictions under the code of conduct will be lifted next week.

As many as 1,180 people were killed in the sectarian violence after the burning of a coach of the Sabarmati Express left 59 dead at the Godhra railway station in Gujarat on February 27, 2002.

Gujarat: the Ghosts of the Past and the Future

A random calculus: variations in compensation for riot-affected

(Indian Express
January 12, 2007)

A random calculus

The riot-affected face state arbitrariness in the matter of ‘compensation’. The National Minorities Commission has done well to investigate these shocking variations in the price of life across states and communities

by Seema Chishti

It is not clear if someone has attempted to second guess what the wind might have to say and get some answers to this version of singer Bob Dylan’s much quoted question — “how many deaths does it take till we know that too many people have died...” But one can say this on good authority: the people of Gujarat, affected by the worst riots in India in recent times, are trying to keep this sad guessing game as engaging as possible — if only just to make sure that the rest of us remain interested in the horror of the violence five years later.

This is not to attempt to go into what happened and who did it — there are worthy men and women and worthier commissions on that job. But we cannot be faulted for wanting to know what happened to the people who didn’t quite die — and have lived on as refugees in their own state and in their own hometowns. Many say they don’t feel safe enough to go back home and start anew. Of course, ‘compensation’ is not only about money. But as that is the only concrete way in which the state can express its sorrow and concern at the loss of life, where do things stand now?

There was the so-called Sikh Riots Package that Sikh survivors were given after much haggling for the agony they suffered during the 1984 riots. The benchmark was what the Delhi High Court decreed in 1996 — Rs 2 lakh plus the interest on it to the day. The courts had got into the very difficult and painful business of working out the price of a human life and arrived at a figure. Admittedly, the most difficult thing to do is to assess the price of life, but as governments and the law must sometimes do so, it may be best to have a thumb rule.

It is in this context that the National Minorities Commission’s bid to get the government to take cognisance of the shocking differentials between the price of life across different man-made horror shows, like the bomb blasts in Mumbai trains and Malegaon in Maharashtra, as opposed to riots like the anti-Sikh pogrom or Mumbai 1992-93 and Gujarat 2002, makes sense. This relative evaluation brings to light how random and arbitrary the method of evaluating lives is at the moment.

In the long run, these differences in amounts and non-payments convince large sections of the people that justice is delivered only to those who are deemed “worthy of it”, the “chosen few”. There can be very little rational justification for the fact that different events or different affected communities, should lead to a different price being put to lives. One may add here that the Samajwadi Party-led regime in UP, while having no written rules, has actually in the past couple of years given the same compensation to the next of kin of those affected. For instance, the families of those killed in the Sankat Mochan temple explosions in Varanasi got the same amount as families of those who died in the Aligarh riots.

In this context, it is shocking how the matter of compensations for Gujarat has been handled. The much touted announcement by Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal that the victims of Gujarat riots in 2002, according to the Sikh riots formula, would get Rs 7 lakh each, has encountered a wall of silence from the prime minister’s office and the home ministry. It forced the irrepressible Jaiswal to say “a final decision has not been taken” to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha in the winter session. It is rather odd that the ruling UPA would choose to adopt this course, unless, as some suspect, it is due to a plan to announce the “compensation” at a time that may be more beneficial politically, given that the UP and Gujarat elections both are scheduled in under a year.

As far as the Gujarat government goes, the evidence so far is not encouraging. The ill-fated Best Bakery case was shifted to neighbouring Maharashtra by the Supreme Court — many other riot cases are waiting to hear the highest court in the land pronounce on their plea for a shift out of Gujarat. Meanwhile, the state government has returned Rs 19.01 crore which it had got as part of the Centre’s contribution for the riot-hit shortly after the riots. It now appears that there is talk of returning the returned money to the state.

You might say there is nothing very different here from the bigger picture — the Congress-led government dithering despite making pious noises in the context of the riots there in the past; the BJP-led parties in denial about the situation and conjuring up a “minority appeasement” plea each time there is some straight talk of rights, at least civil rights, for a section of the state’s population. All in all, a no-hope situation for those who think the tide will turn someday and both political formations will get more mature and sensitive on issues that deeply scar a large number of people. But on the contrary, it could get worse — cloudier and stormier — between the two political groups without any real benefits flowing to the electorate in 2007 as the state elections are due in a few months. The only compensation the people will probably get is another war of words over the riots and yet another round of empty promises.

Gujarat Genocide 2002 - Five Years Later

(Sabrang Alternative News Network
December 20, 2006)

Backgrounder

Gujarat Genocide 2002 - Five Years Later

Press Release

Victim survivors of the Gujarat Genocide, especially those committed to their struggle for justice have been reduced to a life of every day terror and harrasment. Five years later, Shaikh Mohalla in Sardarpura village of Mehsana district, Gulberg society in Ahmedabad, Ode village in Anand district and other areas live as internally displaced refugees without bare civic rights like ration cards, BPL cards, electricity and water. Victims of the Ode massacre still look in vain for the lost ones missing bodies and repeated inquiries with the police face a cold response.

Discriminatory justice and development. While criminals responsible for mass crimes have been granted bail by the high and low judiciary in Gujarat, 84 accused of the Godhra mass arson wilt in jail having been refused bail for four years.

Victim survivors of the Pandharwada massacre who located the mass grave are in vain trying to get a CBI probe into the scandalous dumping of the remains of Pandharwada and other massacres in the Paanam river off Lunawada town (despite the existence of a large graveyard) but instead face intimidation and threat of arrest from the police. Of the 413 officially declared misisng persons, bodies of 228 are still not discovered pointing to largescale illegal dumping of bodies. The NHRC has been appealed to to contact an all-Gujarat inquiry into this.

The Modi government is trying to use fraudulent BPL card holdings (ostensibly given to minority victims of the genocide) as a pre-election sop to grant cheap housing. In fact the BPL lists need to be scrutinised and examined. Ghettoisation and segregation in Gujarat has reached unprecedented levels with even the jails being communalised in the state.

The bitter reality of Gujarat is not simply the functioning of the Gujarat government but the ambivalent position of the opposition in the state, the dominant partner in the UPA coalition in the Centre. The promise of CBI inquiry into the major carnage cases was pre-lection hype that has not materialised into a real promise. Even today while the state government continues with a regime of low intensity terror all over the state, the centre’s UPA is a mute opposition and spectator.

Compensation

In 2002 then NDA government had given Rs 200 crores rehab package to Gujarat. In March 2003, one year later, the cynical and callous state of Gujarat returned about Rs 116 croes claiming that no more relief needed to be done.

The state of Gujarat has paid compensation of only Rs. 1.5 lakhs ( Rs. 90,000 in cash & Rs.60,000 in Narmada Bonds) as compensation to the next of kin of those killed in the rioting. This amount is totally inadequate and arbitrary and amounts to a failure on the part of the State to fulfil its constitutional obligation of compensation. Significantly the Hon'ble Delhi High Court has in 1996 (six years earlier) directed the payment of compensation of Rs. 2 lakhs & interest from 1984 (aggregating to Rs. 3.5 lakhs) to those killed in the 1984 anti Sikh riots. On that basis and allowing even for a 7% annual rate of inflation from 1996 to 2002, the amount of compensation would be required to be approximately 3.00 lakhs (40% increase on 2 lakhs) and interest on this amount from 2002 to 2007 at 8% per annum: an additional Rs. 1 lakh = 4.00 lakhs !. Compensation for injuries/ disabilities sustained should be pro rata to this amount that is Rs 7 lakhs per loss of life.

Let Down by the Centre: After announcing a Rehab Package of Rs 7 lakh per loss of life in 2002, the Centre appears to have had a re-think. The same man, MOS (Home) Sriprakash Jaiswal who made the initial announcement of the package, in a reply to an unstarred question (number 2486) in the Lok Sabha on December 12, surprised everyone by saying that “the centre has not taken a final decision” on the package.

Regarding Destruction of houses/homes: The position re compensation of houses is even worse. The state of Gujarat had fixed an arbitrary and irrational ceiling of Rs. 50,000 as compensation for destruction of houses and in most cases has paid only a pittance. The Womens Parliamentary Committee in its Aug 2002 Report had recorded that it had been informed that 18924 houses had been partially damaged (11,199 urban & 7095 rural) and for which Rs. 15.55 crores had been paid as compensation. This works out to an average of only Rs. 870 per house !! In fact the Committee noted that a number of persons / recipients had shown them cheques of as little as Rs. 40 to Rs. 200!!

Amounts paid so far (i) to relatives of those killed (ii) to those whose houses were destroyed and damaged – is totally inadequate , and at times even illusory. Moreover no compensation has been provided to women who were raped / molested/ attacked although the Respondents Home Dept had informed the Women’s Parliamentary Committee in Aug 2002 that there had been 185 attacks on women & at least 11 cases of rape. In fact rape / molestation was far more pervasive – but a number of the victims were killed / burnt and others have been unwilling to file complaints with the police having regard to their partisan and callous responses. I reiterate that constitutional obligations require that atleast a compensation of Rs 3 lakhs & interest from 2002 ( Rs. 1.5 lakhs) be paid to the relatives of those killed. That amounts pro rata be paid for disabilities & serious injuries. Women who were raped & molested should be given compensation equal to that awarded for persons who were killed. The ceiling amount for house compensation should be raised to 1.5 lakhs in the rural area and 3 lakhs in the urban areas and compensation based on fair assessment of data and records, including the Panchnamas contemporaneously recorded be paid alongwith interest from 2002.

The National Human Rights Commission after considering the responses of the Government of Gujarat to its preliminary Reports/findings concluded in its Report/ Proceedings of 31st May 2002, “ there was a comprehensive failure of the State to protect the Constitutional rights of the people of Gujarat”.

What happened to Mumbai riots cases of 1993 (Meena Menon)

The Hindu - 22, August 2004 | Magazine
URL: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/08/22/stories/2004082200110100.htm

And justice for all ....

In addition to the trauma, riot victims have to contend with the lack of political will and continued apathy of the State to alleviate their plight. MEENA MENON documents the situation in Mumbai after the riots of 1993.

[Photo] VIVEK BENDRE
Days of uncertainty ... Hazra Bi and her younger son.


THE dark stairs lead to a small neat two-room house in Qureshi Nagar, a congested settlement in Kurla, in suburban Mumbai. For the past seven years, it is home to Hazra Bi and her two children, Shabana and Rizwan. Even today, the event which changed her life on a January morning in 1993 is clear in her mind.

"It was 10 a.m. on Saturday. My husband had just come home and he had not even washed or eaten, when a mob came in and started attacking him. They cut off my son, Salim's hands. There was so much blood on the walls ... everywhere ... I remember screaming. After that they threw me out from the second storey of my house and as I fell, my head hit a brass tap and I became unconscious."

When Hazra Bi regained consciousness in the evening, her house was deserted. Her two small children were away and her husband, Mohammed Farooq Qureshi and Salim were missing. "They have not returned till today and I was told they had been burnt alive," she says.

After this incident, she started to work as a domestic help and teach Arabic to raise her two younger children. "I got compensation only in 2001 for my husband and in 2003, for my son and that too, Rs. 30,000 each. The rest of the money (about Rs. 1.7 lakh each) is in the post office savings scheme. I cannot use the money for six years, though I need it now." In her husband's case, she had to pay Rs. 6,200 for an indemnity bond in case he returned. The culprits who are alleged to have taken away her husband and son were never arrested. "I had to sell my old house (in Wadala), as every day people would tell me to go to Pakistan. I feared for my children who were left alone," she says.

Hazra Bi was supported by human rights organisations, but justice is still a long way off, not only for her but also for many others who were affected by the worst-ever riots in Mumbai in 1992-93, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Farooq Mapkar who works in a suburban cooperative bank, is a bitter person after all these years. He is among the 57 people caught in the Hari Masjid case and charged with arson and attempted murder. "Since 1993, we have been summoned repeatedly for the case. The police came and fired inside the masjid, killing seven people. I got a bullet in my left shoulder. The same police officer, I hear, has been promoted. The Special Task force has been disbanded, the Commission report has not been implemented. Where is justice for us? The Congress did not even implement its election manifesto," he says.

At the Sewri court


At the newly built Sewri city and civil session court, in central Mumbai, several cases relating to the riots being tried and disposed of since last November. The accused are largely Muslims, who have been shot at, maimed, or forced to flee their homes after the riots. It is ironic that the court is also the venue for the re-trial of the "Best Bakery" case, which the Supreme Court has transferred from Gujarat. The apex court has placed much faith in Maharashtra for this re-trial, a State which has time and again failed to implement the report of the Srikrishna commission, submitted in February 16, 1998.

At the Sewri court, Mr. T.J. Jadhvani, lawyer, who is dealing with nine cases related to riots of January 1993, has managed to get 20 of his clients acquitted in April 2, over 11 years after the incident occurred. However, the group is charged with rioting and attempted murder in another case. "The accused were charged with attacking a police party in Malad, but the prosecution could not prove that a single policeman even received an abrasion," he says. In fact, the assistant sessions judge pulled up the investigating officer for recording the statement of police officers and filing chargesheets against the accused without an investigation and without taking pains to collect cogent evidence.

Alim Khan (name changed) was 19 years old when riots broke out in his area. He is among those recently acquitted in one case but still accused in another case of rioting. "We all knew we were innocent," says Alim, now working in a private company.

For the members of the Chiliya community in Malad, a northwest suburb, fleeing to Gujarat was the only option. Sixty-five-year-old Habib Kadiwala says he was arrested inside his housing colony after the police came and fired on them. He is among those acquitted in April. Three of the accused suffered injuries in police firing and two of them cannot work anymore. Those who have moved to Gujarat have to keep coming here for their case.

Shakeel Ahmed, lawyer and activist with Nirbhay Bano Andolan, who has worked with riot victims, said that 1,358 cases were closed after being found "true but not detected".

"The Srikrishna Commission had asked for these cases to be reopened but the special task force that was set up, only scrutinised 112 cases of which eight were reopened. On what basis only these 112 cases were scrutinised is a question mark. A senior police officer like R.D. Tyagi, accused in the "Suleiman Bakery case", was only technically arrested but he managed to secure bail," he says. The Commission had said that "the Joint Commissioner of Police, R.D. Tyagi and others were guilty of excessive and unnecessary firing resulting in the death of nine Muslims in the Suleman Bakery incident".

There are cases pending in the Supreme Court to implement the Srikrishna Commission and even Mr. Ahmed filed a case in 2002 in the Supreme Court, demanding the implementation of the Srikrishna report and the dismissal of all 31 policemen charged by the commission. But not a single police official has been suspended.

On the contrary, many of them have been promoted. Many families of the 168 missing persons are still waiting for compensation, says Mr. Ahmed.

In addition to the trauma of riots, victims have to contend with the lack of political will and continued apathy of the State.

Can the "Best Bakery" re-trial set a precedent for the long list of victims in this country, who can only pray for justice, which has eluded them all these years?