Miscarriage of Justice
Once again my hopes on Indian democratic system has just blown up. I am quite feeling disturbed by the grant of bail of Salman Khan which is a shame on Indian judicial system, the supposed ever alert guardian of Indian democracy. With lightening quickness, One of those first who bestowed blessings to Indian judiciary for its impartial deliverance of sentence to a celebrity accused was Mahesh Bhatt. He claimed on a newspaper that the sentence once again proved that Indian judicial system does not recognize the hierarchical socio-economic grades of Indian society and celebrities like Salman Khan are just like any other ordinary aam admi when they come to Indian legal system for justice. While the ink of the sentence was still wet, Bombay high court suspended the sentence and granted interim bail to Salman Khan, the veteran Bollywood actor, accused of hit and run case in 2002. Dr.Binayak Sen must be smiling after watching this news on television. How many of us still remember Dr.Sen today? Sen had been convicted for life sentence for treason, declaring war against the state and sedation charges. The evidences against him seemed fabricated and manipulated, but still he was declared a ‘Naxali Dakiya’ (Messenger of the Naxalites) by the media. The term ‘innocent till proven guilty’ perhaps does not apply to people like Sen.
But this was not all. While he was on trial, he was put in jail for two long years. His bail plea had been repeatedly denied by the state. The appeal for his release from worldwide Nobel laureates and intellectuals including Noam Chomsky did not have too many listeners in India; neither the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi had any grave concern about his imprisonment. Unlike the hit and run case where the apex court clearly found Khan guilty of driving being drunk and that without a license killing one there had no such crystal clear evidence against Sen. What he was accused of was just delivering a letter from Narayan Sanyal whom he used to meet in Raipur Jail to Piyush Guha, a businessman. The prosecution could not prove that Sanyal ever handed out any letter to Sen, neither it was proved that Sen handed over the letters to Guha. But still Sen was an enemy of the state despite his long term humanitarian service in the precarious tribal belts of central India where the basic human necessities like education, health, sanitations are luxury to the people which had been severely neglected since independence. People like Sen are just the tip of the iceberg. lakhs of under trials are kept in jail for years waiting for justice. According to national crime records bureau (NCRB), over 2.78 lakhs of under trials are perishing in Indian jails for years.
There is no denying that a number of high profile politicians, businessmen and actors had been put to jail by the same judiciary but that in no way deters the fact that millions of ordinary Indians have been waiting to be released of whom Dr.Sen is just a symbolic representation. While the state has repeatedly been accused of violating human rights from Kashmir to Gujarat and Bengal and failed to convict the culprits, the release of Salman Khan once again opened up the perennial weaknesses of Indian democracy. The same justice system had put Ravindra Patil behind the bars, the person who lodged the FIR of the case!! The system that released Salman Khan yesterday was in an way responsible for the unfortunate ‘murder’ of Patil who perhaps is quite happy to be dead by now. By remarkable and unenviable efficiency, Bombay high court has just proved that not every Indian enjoys equal rights in this country. What a shame that once again it had put the credibility of Indian democracy on question.
Once again my hopes on Indian democratic system has just blown up. I am quite feeling disturbed by the grant of bail of Salman Khan which is a shame on Indian judicial system, the supposed ever alert guardian of Indian democracy. With lightening quickness, One of those first who bestowed blessings to Indian judiciary for its impartial deliverance of sentence to a celebrity accused was Mahesh Bhatt. He claimed on a newspaper that the sentence once again proved that Indian judicial system does not recognize the hierarchical socio-economic grades of Indian society and celebrities like Salman Khan are just like any other ordinary aam admi when they come to Indian legal system for justice. While the ink of the sentence was still wet, Bombay high court suspended the sentence and granted interim bail to Salman Khan, the veteran Bollywood actor, accused of hit and run case in 2002. Dr.Binayak Sen must be smiling after watching this news on television. How many of us still remember Dr.Sen today? Sen had been convicted for life sentence for treason, declaring war against the state and sedation charges. The evidences against him seemed fabricated and manipulated, but still he was declared a ‘Naxali Dakiya’ (Messenger of the Naxalites) by the media. The term ‘innocent till proven guilty’ perhaps does not apply to people like Sen.
But this was not all. While he was on trial, he was put in jail for two long years. His bail plea had been repeatedly denied by the state. The appeal for his release from worldwide Nobel laureates and intellectuals including Noam Chomsky did not have too many listeners in India; neither the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi had any grave concern about his imprisonment. Unlike the hit and run case where the apex court clearly found Khan guilty of driving being drunk and that without a license killing one there had no such crystal clear evidence against Sen. What he was accused of was just delivering a letter from Narayan Sanyal whom he used to meet in Raipur Jail to Piyush Guha, a businessman. The prosecution could not prove that Sanyal ever handed out any letter to Sen, neither it was proved that Sen handed over the letters to Guha. But still Sen was an enemy of the state despite his long term humanitarian service in the precarious tribal belts of central India where the basic human necessities like education, health, sanitations are luxury to the people which had been severely neglected since independence. People like Sen are just the tip of the iceberg. lakhs of under trials are kept in jail for years waiting for justice. According to national crime records bureau (NCRB), over 2.78 lakhs of under trials are perishing in Indian jails for years.
There is no denying that a number of high profile politicians, businessmen and actors had been put to jail by the same judiciary but that in no way deters the fact that millions of ordinary Indians have been waiting to be released of whom Dr.Sen is just a symbolic representation. While the state has repeatedly been accused of violating human rights from Kashmir to Gujarat and Bengal and failed to convict the culprits, the release of Salman Khan once again opened up the perennial weaknesses of Indian democracy. The same justice system had put Ravindra Patil behind the bars, the person who lodged the FIR of the case!! The system that released Salman Khan yesterday was in an way responsible for the unfortunate ‘murder’ of Patil who perhaps is quite happy to be dead by now. By remarkable and unenviable efficiency, Bombay high court has just proved that not every Indian enjoys equal rights in this country. What a shame that once again it had put the credibility of Indian democracy on question.
