Haryana killing case: High Court convicts 33

IANS

 

NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court on Friday held 33 people guilty in a 2010 Dalit killing case in Haryana’s Hisar district and said “71 years after Independence, instances of atrocities against Scheduled Castes by those belonging to dominant castes have shown no signs of abating”.

“The incidents that took place in Mirchpur between April 19 and April 21, 2010 serve as yet another grim reminder of ‘the complete absence of two things in Indian society’ as noted by Dr B R Ambedkar when he tabled the final draft of the Constitution of India before the Constituent Assembly on November 25 1949,” a bench of Justice Muralidhar and Justice I S Mehta said.

“One was ‘equality’ and the other, ‘fraternity’,” the bench said and made strong remarks against the “planned attack” made by the Jat community against the Valmikis during the incident that led to the displacement of 254 Dalit families from Mirchpur village.

“The unstated footnote is that those who had decided to stay back at Mirchpur village did not support the prosecution in the present criminal trial, while those who decided not to return are the ones who did,” the court said.

“This in itself is a telling commentary on the fear and intimidation that the Dalits still experience in Mirchpur as a result of the incidents of April 19, 20 and April 21, 2010.”

The bench also noted that the government of Haryana has sought to rehabilitate the displaced families not in Mirchpur but in a separate township terming it as “a sobering fact”.

“The question is whether this accords with the constitutional promise of equality, social justice and fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual,” the court said in the 209-page order.

The case was transferred on the direction of the Supreme Court from Hissar to Delhi.

A total of 15 accused belonging to the Jat community were tried and held guilty in the case by the trial court in October 2011. Two of them died during the pendency of the appeal. A total of 97 accused were facing trial in the case.

The court upheld conviction of 13 people, who were held guilty by the trial court.

It also convicted 20 more accused who were previously acquitted by the trial court.

“The conclusion of the trial court that there was no criminal conspiracy is unsustainable in law.

The trial court failed to examine the photographs, videographs and site plans in its analysis of the events of April 21, 2010 and erred in accepting the alternative version of the incident as put forth by the defence,” the bench said and convicted them under various provisions of Indian Penal

Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The bench directed the 20 more convicts to surrender on or before September 1, failing which the Station House Officer of Narnaund, Haryana will take all necessary steps to take them into custody.