“It is a very disappointing judgement, the judiciary failed to understand the state’s role and shied away” from making the investigating agencies and the state ‘accountable’ said Vrinda Grover over the judgment on Hashimpura massacre case.
On march 22, 2015, Tis Hazari Court, Delhi acquitted all the 19 men (three of them have already died) of Provincial Armed Con-stabulary (PAC) on the ground of insufficient evidence. “Delay in justice is itself injustice” .The decision of court came after a very long period of 28 years and it is itself suggests that justice has been thoroughly denied to the victims.
Story Of Bloodbath
In all my years the most disturbing case that I went through is that of Hashimpura and Maliana massacre. This case has frazzled me not only because of the conflicts, riots and the brutality shown by PAC or be it the judgment of Court but also because of the master plan framed by Rajiv Gandhi and Veer Bahadur and the way that the state committed excesses thor-oughly. The former MP and a leader of Aam Aadmi Party Ilyas Azmi expressed his grief over the conspiracy by stating “If I was the judge, I would have sentenced Rajiv and Veer Bahadur to death”.
The story of tragedy began with the decision of Rajiv Gandhi to lead the central government to open the doors of Babri Mas-jid on 1 February 1986, which provoked numerous riots and the communal tension across the nation, Meerut riot also being one of them.
On 22nd May 1987 during the curfew in Meerut city the 19 PAC jawans under the platoon commander Surinder Pal Singh alleg-edly picked up around 50 Innocent Muslims, mostly youth from their homes in Hashimpura. They were packed into van and despite taking them to Police Station, they took them to the Ganga canal at around 9PM and shot some of them. They were thrown into canal. However four of them luckily survived and escaped successfully. One of the survivor also filed a FIR at Murad Nagar Police station. The remaining men were then tak-en to the Hindon Canal at Makanpur and were fired later. There also fortunately two out of the victims who were shot survived and lodged an FIR at the Link Road Police Station.
The Myth of Justice
Indian Judiciary System which should work as the “EPITOME OF JUSTICE” is actually working as termites in curbing the hope of victims. Wajid Ali (Victim) who still awaits justice tells in an in-terview, ” If PAC jawans didn’t do this to us, somebody else did for sure. Can’t they simply find out who did it?” In 28 long years the Judiciary couldn’t even manage to find out that who gave the order to shot and which officers were involved in it . Vibhuti Narain Rai, contemporary SP Of that locality threw some light to it. In an article to Amar Ujala the ex IPS officer wrote critically
on the functioning of Investigative Agencies. He cites that “I have thoroughly gone through the procedures and steps taken by Investigative Agencies and I feel that the case diary of CID was framed in such a way that they were intended to defend those accused.” Praveen Jain, the sole photographer who cap-tured some brutal moments of 22nd May 1987, has also expe-rienced same kind of weird situation. On Primetime with Rav-ish Kumar he claimed that the PAC as well as the CID offered him bribe for the negatives. From the very beginning this particular case of Hashimpura was full of distrust and the way in which this case has been handled has remained under suspicion. Even the forensic ex-perts was asked to examine the truck (in which PAC jawans had packed those 50 innocent and shots) one and half year after the incident and to the obvious they found nothing in the truck. At every level of investigation entire procedures were poorly accomplished that’s why Vrinda Grover said that this is not an accidental Injustice, it was all preplanned.
Post Independent India has witnessed numerous communal clashes. Alike Hashimpura there are so many cases in which judgement is yet to arrive. The 1984 Sikh riot, 1987 Maliana and 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots are few of them. Conspiracy of the state and political parties has been thoroughly smelled behind each conflicts. In Hashimpura verdict multiple flanks went unnoticed. Who were those high ranked officials who gave order to fire on those 50 Innocent? Why Mulayam Singh is still refusing to disclose the Gurusharan Justice Committee report? These questions still haunt the victims and has left the common man is doubt about their hope on their elected rep-resentatives. In a democratic Country like India where constitutional bodies are framed to protect the rights of civilians and facili-tate them a peaceful live have become arsenals of agitation and injustice to the minorities. Therefore there is strong need to make Political parties, the State, Judiciary, Administrative units and Bureaucratic Agencies more accountable to the pub-lic in order to feel real essence of democracy and demand justice for cases like Hashimpura does not die in sands of time.
” If PAC jawans didn’t do this to us, somebody else did for sure. Can’t they simply find out who did it?”
# This is not an acci-dental In-justice, it was all pre-planned.”
says Vrinda Grover
-By: Anwarul Hoda, Economics (H)