After 9 years of violence for Jat quota, Jind court acquits 14

Jind: After a protracted nine-year legal battle, 14 individuals accused of violence during the 2016 Jat reservation stir in Haryana have been acquitted by the court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Pooja Singla. They are from Khokhari village in this district.
The acquitted individuals — Amandeep Pilania, Navneet, Ravi, Satish, Anil, Surender, Amardeep, Kulbir, Haripal, Rammehar, Manjeet, Suresh, and two others named Anil and Surender — endured 56 court appearances since 2016 before being exonerated at last on their 57th hearing.
Case history
In 2016, protests demanding reservation for the Jat community erupted into widespread violence across Haryana, including in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Panipat, and Jind districts. This led to criminal cases against 103 individuals in Jind alone, with charges under Sections 283, 341, 147, and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), relating to unlawful assembly, obstruction, and rioting. Over the years, more than 90 of the accused were acquitted, leaving only a handful of cases unresolved until now.
During the agitation, mobs from villages such as Julana and Uchana had used tractors to block roads and halt trains. In Uchana, rioters had burnt down a police station, a bank, a power plant, and multiple shops. Police identified and arrested suspects based on CCTV footage from various locations. By Apr-May 2016, the movement had subsided largely, but in July, the court summoned 103 villagers of Khokhari, accusing them of public disorder and property damage.
A long ordeal
For those accused, the past nine years have been arduous. Regular court appearances every two to three months made long-term employment in cities like Delhi and Gurugram difficult, some said. Travel costs mounted, though they received free legal defence.
One of the accused claimed being embroiled in a case had derailed his plans to work abroad, while others mentioned facing discrimination when seeking rental accommodations in metropolitan areas following the protests. Now, with their names cleared, they say they can move on with their lives, finally. The acquittal marks a significant closure for those involved, but questions remain about the judicial process and the prolonged legal battles faced by those accused in mass protest-related cases.
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