Supreme Court gives lifer to six for killing Dalits, in 30-year-old case

Thirty years after eight Dalits were massacred by upper caste Thakurs in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has sentenced to life imprisonment six of the accused and said caste system should be abolished soon for ensuring rule of law and smooth functioning of democracy.

Reversing the acquittal of the six accused, the apex court said, "Unfortunately, the centuries-old Indian caste system still takes its toll from time to time. This case unfolds the worst kind of atrocities committed by the so-called upper caste (Kshatriya or Thakur) against the so-called lower caste caste in a civilised country."

"It is absolutely imperative to abolish the caste system as expeditiously as possible for smooth functioning of rule of law and democracy in our country," a bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik said in a judgement.

The apex court said minor discrepancies in statements of witnesses should be ignored by courts in such carnages as they are bound to be under tremendous fear.

The accused belonging to Thakur caste butchered seven totally innocent persons belonging to Harijan caste and to wipe out the evidence of their atrocities, threw their bodies in the strong currents of the Ganges, the apex court said adding the massacre was carried out to teach a lesson to so-called lower caste and commit dacoity at the village.

It was at the intervention of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram that the police had arrested 18 people in connection with the massacre on September 9, 1979, at village Lohari, under Hussainganj police station in Uttar Pradesh.

Those butchered in the massacre were Jasodiya, Ganga, Tulsi, Deo Nath alias Madan, Deen Dayal, Sukhlal and Shripal and the bodies were thrown in the Ganges. Out of seven, the bodies of five persons could never be recovered.

The sessions court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 18 of the accused persons on 1982, against which the accused had appealed in the high court.

The case went on for 19 years in the high court and on January 10, 2001, the high court acquitted all the accused of the charges ignoring even the evidence of one of injured witness Kallu whose wife Jasoiya was also killed in the carnage.

Aggrieved, the UP government appealed in the apex court. The apex court, which re-appreciated the entire evidence in the case, said the high court had taken an erroneous view and wrongly ignored the evidence of Kallu due to certain minor discrepancies in his testimonies like not properly naming the accused.

The apex court noted that the witnesses were obviously terrified and it was only at the intervention of Indira Gandhi and Jagjivan Ram that the police swung into action and arrested the accused.

"The appeal before the high court was in the nature of first appeal and the high court in a case of this nature was expected to carefully analyze the entire evidence and documents on record but unfortunately the High Court without analysing the entire evidence set aside the judgment

The eight persons, who were abducted and tied with rope, brought to the midstream of the river and after their murder, the bodies were thrown in the river one by one except that of Kallu who escaped by jumping into the river.

"In that fear psyche, naming the appellants would have meant risking his life and in that state of mind, the omission of mentioning the names of the appellants is not unnatural and her testimony cannot be discarded on that count," the apex court said.

According to the bench, the high court has failed to appreciate the circumstances in which Kallu survived by jumping into the river and hiding at certain places.

"In a genocide and massacre which was witnessed by him, wherein all his seven close relatives including his wife, were killed one after other in his presence, his escaping the death was a miracle.

"Hiding and saving his life from a mighty cruel upper caste group was a normal human instinct. Any reasonable or prudent person would have behaved in the same manner. Immediately after his escape, he tried to make a complaint but he did not succeed", the court said.

 "Ultimately when he wrote to Smt. Indira Gandhi and Shri Jagjivan Ram, perhaps at the intervention of someone, the police seriously investigated the matter and he was brought to his village Lohari under police protection. The delay in giving his statement is fully explained and in the facts and circumstances of the case delay was quite natural," the apex court said.

The apex court said that in a case of this nature, the witnesses turning hostile is not unusual particularly in a scenario where upper caste people have created such a great fear psyche.

"The instinct of survival is paramount and the witnesses cannot be faulted for not supporting the prosecution version," the bench said. The apex court said though the benefit of doubt could be given in the case of 12 persons, in the case of six others, there was sufficient and cogent material to establish their guilt.

Hence the apex court said, the remaining six accuusedMathura Singh alias Vijay Bahadur Singh, Udai Bhan Singh alias Lallan Singh, Dhirendra Singh, Munna son of Ram Lal, Ram Niwas Singh alias Challa Singh and Vijay Karan Singh are guilty of the massacre. But during the pendency of the appeal in the apex court, Ram Niwas Singh died.

"Though the trial court convicted 18 accused but to ensure that even the slightest miscarriage of justice should not take place, we have modified the order of the trial court and given benefit of doubt to 12 accused but as far as other six accused are concerned, there is no iota of doubt about their participation in this ghastly crime where seven innocent persons of lower caste were butchered", the apex court said.

"The high court has neither analyzed the evidence nor the documents on record and without any cogent evidence, the high court by the impugned judgment has set aside a very well reasoned judgment of the trial court," it said while reversing the acquittal against the five accused and directed them to surrender forthwith failing which they would be arrested.