Best
Bakery Jessica Lal
And The Cake Of Justice
By Sorit Gupto
09 March, 2006
Countercurrents.org
It
is just a mere coincidence that nine persons has convicted in Best bakery
and nine has been acquitted in the Jessica lal murder case but the recent
judgments on both the cases presents some typical characteristics of
the criminal justice system of India.
What ever the outcome of
the judgments , the role of the police was one of the most decisive
factor, beside the eyewitnesses who turned hostile. Now every one is
making noises against the eyewitnesses, asking for some stringent laws
to check them turning hostile , but what about the role of the police
particularly in these cases?
To understand the real working
style of the police department, here, it is worth mentioning the statement
of Mr. Justice Bannerjee on Godhra incident published in The Hindu on
March 4 th issue according to which "… Mr. Justice Banerjee
said the police refused to cooperate with him initially and came forward
to depose only after a year when he invoked his powers under the Commission
of Inquiry Act."
Now turning on to the Jessica
Lal and Best bakery case.
Except the verdict , both
the cases mentioned above has various similarities with one another
and the most important of these are the role of the investigative agencies
particularly the role of Police or the state for example, both of the
cases are famous or infamous for the tampering off of the evidences,
deliberately by none other that the very investigative agencies by themselves.
But justice at last.At least
in Best bakery case, where nine convicts are sentenced to life imprisonment.
The time period in between the crime and the punishment for this particular
case is roughly four years. Compared it with other cases, in our country
the speed of the trial is fair enough, but one should keep in the mind
that this is not because of the much hyped Fast Track Court or any other
thing but because of the proceedings of the 'Re- Trial' out side the
state of Gujarat, which has actually made the whole difference.
After that ,following the
path of justice shown by the Best Bakery case , voices are being raised
in demand of the proceedings of the retrial of Jessiac Lal case out
side of Delhi.
However this is the most
dangerous out come of the judgment given by both the cases. By giving
orders to the retrial of the Best Bakery, the Apex court of India ,
by one way or other has admitted the fact that, dealing with the case
in the state of Gujarat ,there were rampant misuse of power by the state
and it's investigation agencies which had crossed all limits to save
the culprits.
Re trial and that is again
'out side' the area of the crime is another bad precedent, because accepting
this we are actually accepting the biased behavior of the police department.
Don't we heading towards a time where for seeking justice one has to
fight in any other court except the local one?
If one is not getting justice
after first trial than what is the guaranty that the justice will be
deliver in re trial. Here question should be asked that how many of
retrials should be allowed ? The fundamental base of the retrial basically
is to discard the whole proceeding of the former one and all other factors
associating with it. Some one should be held responsible for the wastage
of time , energy ,the harassment and the suffering of the common man,
because after all it's the tax payers money through which the investigating
agencies , the courts and each and every apparatus of the state is running,
and any misuse of the above is actually the misuse of the money of the
tax payer.
Though for some unknown reasons
court has spared very state investigative agencies with mild warning
for their 'negligence' and 'callousness' and on the other hand they
have indicted Jahira Sheikh , the key eyewitness, and few other people
for changing their versions during the proceedings.
If the police department
is really so callus then why the officials are still continuing with
their job over there? Do we need callus , inefficient officers in our
police department?
What kind of massage comes
out by not indicting those 'callous' police officers? As a matter of
fact , by tampering with the witness, by not registering the FIR at
right moment, by not providing proper security to the key eye witness
, by not cooperating with the court proceedings, as for example, by
not providing the very video CD to the trial court in which Manu Sharma,
the main accused in the Jessica Lal case, has admitted about his crime,
the police department has actually saved the culprit.
Instead of acquitting the
investigating officials by using mild words like 'callousness' and 'negligence'
they should be indicted for acting on behalf of the culprit.
And lastly, the above two
judgment has shown that how much lapses( read deliberate attempt) can
be made to distort the criminal justice system in 'high profile' cases
to favor a particular group or an individual, one can just imagine ,
what we actually have for the common and ordinary citizen in our criminal
justice system.
The acquittal of all the
persons charged with the murder of the model Jessica Lal results in
much hue and cry from more or less all the sections of the society.
It seems that one can not get justice in present day circumstances ,
and right that moment we come across the best bakery judgment which
're-established' the faith of the society and the common man on our
criminal justice system.
But is it realy truth? Do
we really regained our lost faith on our criminal justice system?
Contrary to that, we indeed
need a retrial, but not a retrial in that sense. We need the trial of
the investigative agencies and various arms of the state who are serving
not for the people but on the behalf of some one else , and mostly for
the culprit , be it an individual or a state. We need to indict those
who are playing with the justice. We need to indict those who are harboring
and saving the culprits .
Until then ,The answer of
the above question is a big NO.