Delhi High Court.
The Delhi High Court Friday dismissed the appeal of 15 persons belonging to the Jat community and held them guilty for burning alive a 70-year-old Dalit man and his physically-challenged daughter at Mirchpur village in Haryana’s Hisar district in 2010, PTI has reported. The inter-caste violence incident had led to the eventual displacement of 254 Dalit families from Mirchpur village.
Reflecting on the case, a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta made strong remarks against the “planned attack” made by the Jat community against the Valmiki community. “71 years after Independence, instances of atrocities against Scheduled Castes by those belonging to dominant castes have shown no sign of abating. The incidents that took place in Mirchpur between 19 to 21st April 2010 serve as yet another grim reminder of ‘complete absence of two things-equality & fraternity in Indian society’ as noted by Dr B.R. Ambedkar in the final draft of Constitution,” the bench said.
A total of 15 accused, belonging to the Jat community, had appealed in the High Court against the trial court order. The victims and the police had also appealed in the high court seeking enhancement of punishment awarded to the convicts and acquittal of others. A total of 97 accused were facing trial in the case.
In 2010, the house of Tara Chand was set on fire and he and his daughter were charred to death. The incident was triggered by an altercation between some Dalit youths and upper caste men after a person from the latter faction had thrown a stone at a dog which was barking at him. A mob stormed the locality housing Dalit families and set about a dozen houses ablaze.
On October 31, 2011, the trial court had sentenced Kulwinder, Dharambir and Ramphal to life imprisonment for committing unintentional killing under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. Five others — Baljeet, Karamveer, Karampal, Dharambir and Bobal — were handed down a jail term of five years for their offences including rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, mischief and putting ablaze victims’ houses and provisions of SC/ST (POA) Act. Seven others, convicted under milder penal provisions, were released on probation by the trial court, which had earlier acquitted 82 out of 97 accused in the case.
(With inputs from PTI)