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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A verdict, finally by Anupama Katakam

A verdict, finally by Anupama Katakam

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published Published on Nov 29, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 29, 2011

The first judgment in a 2002 riots case and the SIT report on the Ishrat Jahan killing go against the Gujarat government.

THE verdict in a crucial and long-running case involving a massacre and the investigation report in another case, of alleged encounter killings, both delivered in November, give hope to victims of the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat that they will get justice, even if delayed.

In the first case, the special court in Mehsana, in a historic judgment on November 9, sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment for the massacre at Sardarpura, the largest number of people convicted in recent times in a single case of communal violence.

Later in the month, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the numerous encounter deaths in Gujarat declared that the Ishrat Jahan encounter killing on June 14, 2004, had been staged by the Gujarat police and that the four people found dead had been killed a day earlier.

The judicial verdict and the SIT report are being seen as a setback to Chief Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to distance himself from the pogrom and the controversial encounter deaths in the State. In the Gulberg Society-Zakia Jafri case, little has been done to investigate his role. Activists fighting the cases say the men who have been punished are just foot soldiers of generals, who are still free.

Activists also point out that while some survivors have been compensated for their loss, they have not seen any socio-economic improvement in the years after the riots. They say the State has become polarised, with Muslims being neglected completely.

Sardarpura massacre

It is a story that sounds straight out of the Holocaust.

On February 28, 2002, a very scared group of Muslims locked themselves in the only pucca house in their locality in Sardarpura town in Mehsana district. It was the day after the Sabarmati Express fire in Godhra and there were reports of thousands of Muslims being killed all over Gujarat. They knew their lane with kutcha houses would definitely be targeted. Ibrahim Sheikh's house was the only proper structure in the shanty town and, they believed, their best chance to escape the rampaging mob. However, the rioters locked the door from outside and set the house on fire. Thirty-three people, 11 of them children, were burnt alive.

Almost a decade later, justice finally caught up with the arsonists. Of nine cases relating to the 2002 riots, the Sardarpura massacre case is the only one in which a verdict has been given. In 2008, all the cases were handed over to an SIT appointed by the Supreme Court.

Seventy-six people were accused in the Sardarpura case; 31 were convicted and 42 acquitted. Two died during the trial and one was declared juvenile. Justice S.C. Srivastava of the Supreme Court did not accept the prosecution's charge that it was a criminal conspiracy under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. A criminal conspiracy would fetch capital punishment. Instead, the court concluded that the incident took place on the spur of the moment, on March 1.

The 31 convicted were charged with murder, attempt to murder, rioting and other offences under the IPC. Section 302 (murder) read with other sections attracted punishments of one month to 10 years' imprisonment, all to run concurrently. Additionally, the judge ordered each of the accused to pay a fine of Rs.50,000.

“For their crime they should have got capital punishment, but at least this is a start,” said a former police officer from Gujarat.

Activists, such as Teesta Setalvad, who have fought a protracted legal battle to secure justice for the riot victims say the verdict reinstates their faith in the law. Citizens for Peace and Justice (CJP), to which Teesta Setalvad belongs, says there are critical issues that still need to be addressed in the Sardarpura case.

For instance, witnesses and other riot victims from Sardarpura are still scared to return to their village. For the past nine years they have lived at Satnagar in neighbouring Sabarkantha district.

Teesta Setalvad said that most of the testimony was based on eyewitness accounts, which was why it was important to offer them protection. “Eyewitness testimonies are the only factor for convictions during mob violence. Eyewitness testimonies are the only guarantor of convictions – there are over four dozen judgments on this, and without these testimonies there would have been no conviction,” she said.

“With the conviction, the wheels of truth and justice are surely, though slowly, moving in the right direction. While there were more than 70 accused, the conviction of such a large number in a communal violence incident in the country is unprecedented. Other cases need to be expedited and the guilty, irrespective of the office they hold, should be convicted as soon as possible. Only then will the victim-survivors of one of the bloodiest chapters of India's history be able to take consolation from the fact that their struggle has not been in vain,” said Father Cedric Prakash, director of Prashant, a centre for human rights, justice and peace in Ahmedabad.

“We will never return”

A small row of houses at the end of a Muslim locality in Satnagar near Himmatnagar, the district headquarters of Sabarkantha district, is guarded by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The 22 families (112 people) who live in this lane are either riot survivors or relatives of those who died in the Sardarpura massacre. Most are agricultural labourers or painters who live on daily wages.

The CISF was stationed there after a Supreme Court order that Central forces should protect this group. “We cannot trust the Gujarat police any more,” says Gulam Ali, who lost two brothers, a sister-in-law and a nephew in the 2002 violence.

Soon after the verdict, Frontline visited Satnagar to speak to the victims' families and other riot survivors. It was certainly justice, they said, but it did not really change their lives.

“What does it mean for us? In Satnagar there is very little work. There is one school up to class eight. There is no health centre and many of us do not even have an earning member. We have been living off the compensation,” said Basheera Bibi, who lost her husband in the riot.

“If it wasn't for Meher Kothari [the well-wisher from Vadodara who built small homes for them], we wouldn't even have these houses. Neither the State nor Muslim organisations nor NGOs have done anything for us. In fact, not a single Minister has visited us in the nine years and eight months since we fled Sardarpura,” she said.

“The judgment is good, but it was a planned attack and many more had to be convicted. The day before the attack, I went to buy besan to fry bajjiyas, the shopkeeper said to me, ‘Eat today because you may not be able to tomorrow.' That man is in jail now, but he needs to be given the worst punishment as he knew and he led the mob,” said Basheera Bibi. Following the massacre, those who made it out alive went to live in a relief camp. Two months later the well-wisher from Vadodara bought a strip of land in the Muslim quarter of Satnagar and built on it one-room houses, which he gave to the Sardarpura survivors.

“We went back once to retrieve our belongings. The panchayat head asked us to pay tax before entering our lane. They even took tax of those who died. Most of the houses were burnt. There was not much we could take back,” said Gulam Ali, who lost two brothers in the riot.

“We will never return there. Even though it isn't very far, some of us have not been back even once,” he said. “So many are still walking around free. I can recognise many who were part of that mob that attacked us on February 28, 2002. They should be hanged in front of us.”

Gulam Ali said that on the previous day, large groups of men, mainly from the Patel community, had gathered in their small village. “They had collected and distributed weapons. On the day of the attack, the men gathered near our lane. We knew they would come for us, but we could not leave the village as they were guarding the exits. Eventually, they attacked us at 9-30 p.m. Many of them were our neighbours whom we had grown up with.” Thinking that the pucca house was safe, several women and children rushed there. Tragically, it turned into a death chamber.

Babu miya lost his wife in that fateful house. His eight-month-old granddaughter died on the way to hospital. Today, sick and unable to work, the 70-year-old lives with his son. “All we want is some work and education for our children. At least in Sardarpura we earned up to Rs.400 a day. Now we barely make Rs.50 working in the fields.”

A testimony to the massacre, the house that the victims thought was safe is the only structure that still exists in the lane, called Sheikh Vaas, in Sardarpura. Its interiors are completely burnt, and some local people claim the scratch marks on the walls were left by people who desperately tried to escape. The rest of the lane resembles a ruin overrun with weeds and thorns.

Says Teesta Setalvad: “A real-life issue for all of us working in the socio-political arena is the paralysis within locations where mass crimes happen…. In Sardarpura, victim-survivors cannot relocate. What do we conclude from this? The entire socio-political class, even the opposition, has failed to ensure a climate of safety to ensure that this happens. An intrepid legal fight has brought legal victory, but what about reparation and restitution?”

Father Prakash, Teesta Setalvad and several other activists have relentlessly demanded that the SIT give proper evidence of political involvement. Until this happens, the main culprits in the cases relating to the riots will not be booked, they say. Yet, many believe this is a good beginning in the struggle for justice.

Killing fields

In June 2004, Ishrat Jahan and her colleague Javed Sheikh were abducted and killed near Ahmedabad in a calculated move by the Gujarat police. The police claimed that the duo were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives on a mission, along with two others, to kill Narendra Modi. Acting on intelligence information, they had intercepted the car in which Ishrat and Javed were travelling and shot all the four passengers in the vehicle.

The families of Ishrat Jahan and Sheikh were firm in their belief that the two were framed. Today they stand vindicated. The Gujarat High Court-appointed SIT investigating the genuineness of the encounter killing filed its report on November 18, in which it stated that the encounter was a fake one.

According to informed sources, it came to this conclusion on the basis of forensic and scientific evidence and post-mortem reports. The seed of doubt was first sown in September 2009 when Judicial Magistrate S.P. Tamang, after an inquiry, concluded that the encounter was “cooked up”. If the court accepts the report, several top police officers and politicians could face prosecution.

Following the 2002 pogrom, there have been five major encounter killings in the State. The police justified each incident saying they had adequate information to prove that the victims were militants on a mission to murder Modi.

During the next one year the fate of those cases may be decided – and, perhaps, Modi's as well.

Frontline, Volume 28, Issue 25, 3-16 December, 2011, http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20111216282502700.htm


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