The road from Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu)

Written by P.S. KRISHNAN |Updated: January 19, 2018 12:04:13 am

The author is former Secretary to government of India and works in the field of social justice for SCs, STs, BCs for the last more than six-and-half decades.

P.S. Krishnan

The speedy trial and conviction in a Tamil Nadu ‘honour killing’ case indicates that amended SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities act is yielding results. 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 (POA Amend. Act) has begun to yield results. The Act was enacted to comprehensively amend and strengthen the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (POA Act 1989). Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur Principal District and Sessions Court has on December 12, 2017 convicted eight of the accused for the murder of V. Shankar, a B.Tech-educated Dalit youth, son of a labourer, as a punishment for the marriage between him and Kausalya, a non-Dalit, educated girl from a middle-class family. The court awarded death sentences to six of the accused, including Kausalya’s father. The trial was completed one year and nine months after the crime. 

V. Shankar, a B.Tech-educated Dalit youth and Kausalya, a non-Dalit, educated girl from a middle-class family 

This is fast by Indian standards and was facilitated by the appointment of an exclusive Special Public Prosecutor by the state government, in accordance with the POA Amend. Act. The trial could have been completed even faster — the Act lays down a time limit of two months — if the state government had, as required by the amended Act and Rules, also taken the following steps: One, establish an exclusive special court. Two, set up a high-powered “vigilance and monitoring committee”, with the chief minister as chairman and ministers of home, finance, and SC and ST departments, SC and ST MPs, MLAs and MLCs, senior bureaucrats, and local representatives of national commissions for SCs and STs as members. This committee is required to meet every January and July and discharge functions listed in Rule 16.

The Act requires these two steps to be taken by every state government. The successful prosecution of this case and the appropriate punishment awarded should be utilised to prevent further cases of atrocities including “dishonorable” killings, unfortunately referred to as “honour killings”. In addition to the two measures mentioned above, certain other steps must be taken in Tamil Nadu and all other states. There is clear perception of threat to the life and security of Kausalya and Shankar’s family. Effective police protection, withdrawn a year after the murder, should be restored and maintained till the threat clearly disappears. The death sentence will have to go to the high court for confirmation. There may also be appeals. These have to be diligently attended to by the state government.

Appropriate schemes should be prepared for the rights and entitlements of victims and witnesses in accessing justice as required. This case shows that the life of a young man with a promising career was snuffed out, the life of a young woman also with a promising career, blighted. A family has been drowned in sorrow, and six of the convicted are facing premature death by law. This is an example of wholesale destruction caused by the caste system. This case should be widely publicised and people exhorted to come out of the death-trap of the caste system and mentality. There have been a number of cases of the past where persons have been killed for Dalit and non-Dalit marriages and surviving wives and families are languishing, like those of Abhirami and Divya, whose husbands lost their life in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Abhirami’s elder brother and father were convicted in 2015. The state government has to take stock of such cases and ensure the confirmation of death sentences by the high court.

I am averse to all violence, including the death penalty. But unfortunately, in India’s deeply caste-ridden society in which normal human beings are criminalised in the caste context, death sentences become inevitable, like surgical amputations to save the body. All survivors should be fully and permanently rehabilitated and honoured in public functions. The state government should take charge of the entire education of the children of Abirami and other such survivors. The role of the local police in a number of cases has been adversely commented upon — like that of the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Usilampatti with respect to Dilip Kumar and Vimala Devi in 2014. Police officers and personnel who have been in dereliction of their duty should be prosecuted under Section 4 of the Act. The IPS officers of the state must rectify caste biases on the part of lower officers and personnel. The government should take stock of inter-caste marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits and give them full protection. 

Killings and other atrocities occur to the greatest extent in marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits. This is a recent phenomenon, in addition to the atrocities on traditional grounds related to land, resistance to “untouchability”, etc. But there are also instances where such crimes take place where partners belong to a non-Dalit “lower” caste and an “upper” caste. To cover such cases, it will be necessary to have a separate legislation with provisions for the effective protection, a deterrent death sentence, and total rehabilitation. This is particularly important because inter-caste marriages are bound to take place and should become more frequent. Political parties should take a clear stand against such violence and in favour of inter-caste marriages.

The perils of the caste system, including its adverse consequences on the growth of employment opportunities for the youth of all communities, should be effectively impressed on the younger generation through the education system. The POA Amendment Act should be studied by every chief minister, home minister, SC and ST department minister, chief secretary, home secretary and DGP. They should take full charge of its implementation. Training courses should be held at different levels for police officers and other officers of the district administration. 

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-road-from-tiruppur-dalit-murder-tamil-nadu-honour-killing-5030604/ (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Sonai killings: Death for all 6 guilty of killing 3 Dalit youth (Maharashtra)

WRITTEN BY

Pranali Lotlikar Chinpranali 

Updated: Jan 21, 2018, 05:20 AM IST

The Nashik Sessions court on Saturday awarded capital punishment to all the six accused found guilty in the Sonai killings case. The court held that the act committed by the accused was rarest of rare and deserved nothing but a death sentence.

The court, presided over by Judge Vaishav, further said that there was a need to put an end to such mentality, which is spreading through society like a life-threatening disease, and hopefully, this judgement will curb its growth. Last week, the court found the six accused — brothers Ramesh (43), Prakash (38), and Ragunath alias 'Popat' (52); Ganesh alias Praveen Darandale (23), Sandeep Kurhe (37) and Ashok Phalke (44) — guilty of one of the most brutal hate crimes in recent years. 

The gory murders of three Dalit youths in Ahmednagar's Sonai village took place more than five years ago. Sachin Gharu (24), Sandeep Thanvar (25) and Rahul Kandare (20) were brutally murdered and their mutilated body parts scattered in a septic tank and a dried-up well. The motive was anger that Sachin, a Dalit youth, was pursuing a relationship with an upper caste Maratha woman, related to the Darandales. Sandeep and Rahul had witnessed the covering up of the crime. Pankaj Thanvar, Sandeep's brother, says he is happy that justice has been delivered and that the judiciary was not shaken by the economic or the caste background of the accused. Pankaj is a soldier in the Indian Army.

It was a proud moment for the prosecution as it based its argument on circumstantial evidence of Call Data Records (CDR) and 'last seen together' theory. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, "The anger over a schedule caste man loving an upper caste woman was so much that the accused, even after Gharu's death, cut his body into eight pieces and threw the pieces into a borewell. To eliminate evidence, they killed the two youths who saw the gruesome killing and threw their bodies into the sewage tank too. The case was a rarest-of-rare example of hate and caste crime, as the court observed." 

Sudharak Olve, photo-journalist and Padmashree award winner, who is documenting caste atrocities across Maharashtra, said, "The primary responsibility of being sensitive to caste atrocities lies with the police machinery. When that fails to secure the rights of Dalits or any other reserved caste person, the feudal caste hierarchy takes things for granted and such cases occur." Activist Vaibhav Chaya says, "The police buckles under pressure from authorities and politicians, who belong to the upper caste. Atrocities can only stop if police conduct a fair investigation."

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-sonai-killings-death-for-all-6-guilty-of-killing-3-dalit-youth-2577080 (Accessed 24 December 2018)

Tamil Nadu: Death sentence awarded to couple for Dalit woman's murder

WRITTEN BY

PTI

Updated: Jan 11, 2017, 10:50 AM IST

A local court on Tuesday awarded death sentence to a couple for murdering a Dalit woman, angered over her brother's love affair with their daughter, last year.

District court judge Abdul Khader awarded capital punishment to the couple Sankaranarayanan and his wife Chellammal stating that charges were proved against them beyond doubt. They should be hanged till death, the judge said. According to prosecution Vishwanathan, a Dalit, was in love with daughter of Sankaranarayan and Chellammal. He had eloped with her following resistance from her parents and relatives.

Angry over it, Sankarananrayanan and his wife came to the residence of Viswanathan. However, he was not there. Though his elder sister Kalpana tried to placate them, she was hacked to death by the couple on May 13, 2016. Kalpana was mother of a girl child. Sankaranarayanan and Chellammal have been arrested and murder charges were framed against them.

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-tamil-nadu-death-sentence-awarded-to-couple-for-dalit-woman-s-murder-2291323 (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Is India preparing to hang an innocent ‘untouchable’?

N. JAYARAM 26 November 2014

Should the court rule against Koli and were he to be hanged, it would be the second consecutive execution in India of a most likely, or almost entirely, innocent person. Surinder Koli is a member of a Dalit, or oppressed (formerly known as ‘untouchable’), caste in imminent risk of execution for horrific crimes he may well not have committed.

He has been convicted of murdering a 14-year-old named Rimpa Haldar based entirely on his confession obtained under torture some two months after his arrest in December 2006. His confession statement, which mentioned several other murders, mutilation, cannibalism and worse, specifically stated that he was tortured and tutored during detention.

In most civilised jurisdictions, confession under torture is automatically ignored. The Indian Evidence Act bars a confession made due to inducement, threat or promise. Moreover the Supreme Court of India has ruled against it, also observing that prolonged custody prior to a confession is sufficient to deem it involuntary. There is no other evidence against Koli than his confession under torture during detention by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).

Moreover, Koli’s confession details stretch credibility. According to his repetitive and near identical statements, all the killings took place during the day in Moninder Singh Pandher’s house where Koli was a domestic servant. He carried out the killing in the drawing room, stripped the clothes off, carried the bodies to the bathroom to be mutilated, got to the kitchen and cooked and ate some body parts. Some hours later he would clean the house. Not once did anyone surprise him in the acts, nor observe them.

Fifteen more cases are pending against Koli – 11 in the trial court stage and four in the appeal stage in Allahabad High Court in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was poorly represented by legal aid lawyers whereas his employer Pandher, who was also convicted in the Rimpa Haldar case, went from death penalty to outright acquittal by the high court.

The killings and mutilations took place in Nithari village close to New Delhi but in the jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh. In 2007, India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) set up an expert committee of senior officials to look into the “Nithari Killings”. The committee made a damning indictment of the investigations by the police and the CBI (thus raising serious doubts about Koli’s role in the killings). The committee noted scientific information supplied by a senior medical expert, Dr Vinod Kumar, MD, who had carried out autopsies and who pointed out that the middle parts (torsos) of all the bodies were missing, giving rise to the suspicion that they were being used in the organ trade.

Dr Vinod Kumar noted the surgical precision with which they had been handled. He disfavoured the theory of cannibalism as that could have been a ruse to divert attention from the organ trade. In its report, the WCD committee cast doubts over the prosecution theory about the motive for the killings and noted its failure to investigate the organ trade trail. The house next to the one where Koli worked was occupied by a Dr Naveen Chaudhury, who had been charged previously in a case of organ trading.

The WCD report was never given to Koli’s lawyers or to the trial or appeal courts. Dr Vinod Kumar’s observations would have had a crucial bearing on the case against Koli. The prosecution failed to examine his report, record his statement or call the autopsy surgeon as a witness. A highly unusual lapse in a murder case.

Moreover, the WCD report pointed out that there was no pattern in the choice of victims which is generally the hallmark of serial killers: the victims were both male and female and ranged in age from three to young women. The method of disposal of the body – around the house in broad daylight – seems not to have aroused the courts’ suspicion. Crucial witnesses such as other employees of Pandher were never called. Koli’s guilt, in other words, has never been provenbeyond reasonable doubt.

Assuming for the sake of argument that Koli did indeed do what his confession statements claim, he needs psychiatric and medical help, not the hangman’s noose. Sparing mentally ill convicts the death penalty is the least amount of decency that retentionist states can show. The Supreme Court, while dismissing Koli’s review petition on 28 October 2014, was reported to have said that “in future the trial court will ensure that the accused in other cases by given proper legal assistance by a lawyer of expertise and who can devote time,”. How absurdly bizarre is that? It amounts to saying: you have a point that Koli was not given proper legal representation but we’ll nevertheless let this poorly represented chap hang even if he’s innocent as he claims to be.

Following the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision, the People’s Union for Democratic Rights went back to the Allahabad High Court, seeking commutation to a life sentence on the ground that there had been considerable delay in his case. The court originally set 25 November to hear the government’s response but as that had not been submitted in time, will now hear it on December 1.

Should the court rule against Koli and were he to be hanged, it would be the second consecutive execution in India of a most likely, or almost entirely, innocent person. In February last year, a Kashmiri named Afzal Guru was hanged in secret and his body buried inside the jail without informing his family beforehand in connection with the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. The Supreme Court had almost conceded there was little merit in the case, but said: “The collective conscience of the society will be satisfied only if the death penalty is awarded to Afzal Guru.”

India’s political class, judiciary, police and prosecution are packed with members of upper or oppressor castes as is the media. Inside Indian jails, it is the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis (indigenous peoples), who make up the majority. Officials and media people from upper classes and castes have little sympathy for the latter. The Supreme Court’s callous dismissal of the review petition by Koli, an indigent Dalit, and its abominable verdict in the Afzal Guru case are but two examples.

Equally crucially, if Koli were to be hanged, a possible witness in what the report of the committee constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development points to a much larger criminal network would be lost forever. The Pandhers and their neighbours can sleep in peace, basking in the caste, class and communal prejudices of the institutions that fail(ed) to bring them to justice.

Is that what a country that preens itself as the world’s largest democracy is all about?

Source: https://www.opendemocracy.net/openindia/n-jayaram/is-india-preparing-to-hang-innocent-%E2%80%98untouchable%E2%80%99 [last accessed 06.02.2015]

India 'honour killers' face death for 1991 murders

BBC News Asia:
16 November 2011 Last updated at 19:31 GMT

A judge in India has sentenced eight men to death and 20 others to life imprisonment for three so-called honour killings that took place in 1991.The men were found guilty of murdering a Dalit boy and a girl from a higher caste who had eloped together, as well as the boy's cousin. All three were set alight and hanged, the court in Uttar Pradesh state heard.

A BBC correspondent says the sentences are some of the most severe ever recorded in a such a case. Earlier this year India's Supreme Court ordered states to stamp out "honour killings, saying people found guilty of such crimes should face execution. Convictions in such cases often carry life sentences.

The death penalty is awarded only very rarely in India - when executions are authorised they can be delayed for years on appeal.

Genitals burned Age-old notions of tradition and family honour are still deeply entrenched in many parts of Indian society. According to one recent study, hundreds of people are killed each year for falling in love or marrying outside their caste or against their families' wishes. Often "honour" crimes are endorsed, or even encouraged, by village-based caste councils or panchayats.

The court in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh heard how Vijander, a Dalit boy, had eloped with his girlfriend, Roshni. She was a member of the higher-caste Jaat community and from the same village, Mehrana, near the border with Haryana state. The couple returned to Mehrana a few days later thinking anger would have subsided, the BBC's Ram Dutt Tripathi in Lucknow reports.

But village elders decreed they be killed, along with Vijander's cousin Ram Kishan, who had helped them elope. The killings took place on 22 March 1991 and were brutal - the court heard how the genitals of the deceased were burned before they were hanged from a tree.

The case came to light because the parents of the boys lodged a case against the council for ordering the killings, our correspondent says.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15759470
accessed on 18th Nov 2011