A need for quicker justice

The New Indian Express First Published : 23 Feb 2011 11:59:00 PM ISTLast Updated : 24 Feb 2011 01:11:37 AM IST
The verdict in the Godhra train burning case does not redound to the credit of the criminal justice system in the country. It took nine years to find 31 persons guilty and 63 others, including prime accused Maulvi Saeed Umarji, innocent. The responsibility for the delay cannot be laid at the door of the sessions judge, who heard the case, as the trial proper took only 20 months. The villain of the piece is the politicisation of the case. Ordinarily, it should not have been difficult for the police to find out whether the fire that burnt alive 59 karsevaks in the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express was the result of a conspiracy or not. But then politics intervened and contesting claims were made, including one by a farcical commission of inquiry appointed by then railway minister Lalu Prasad.
For the Sangh Parivar organisations, which had been insisting all along that Godhra was the result of a conspiracy, it is a matter of satisfaction that the sessions judge has upheld their theory. What is striking about the judgment is the failure of the prosecution to prove the charge against a majority of the accused, including the so-called ‘mastermind’. Given the seriousness of the case, the prosecution should not have spared any medico-legal step to draw up a watertight case against the accused. While the ‘conspirators’ deserve the severest punishment possible, the point that those who have been proved ‘innocent’ have spent nearly nine years in jail for no fault of theirs cannot be overlooked. The off-and-on invocation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against the accused was mainly to blame for the denial of bail in the case of many. Needless to say, this amounts to a travesty of justice.
The Special Investigation Team has announced its decision to appeal against the verdict. Some of those found guilty are likely to challenge their conviction. Since the high court will rely only on the evidences produced by the prosecution at the trial stage, a dramatic turnaround at that stage is unlikely. The relatives of the Godhra victims would have preferred to have quicker justice. While Godhra has been found to be premeditated, it is yet to be ascertained whether the post-Godhra violence, too, was the result of a conspiracy. Trial of such cases should be quickened so that the common man’s faith in the efficacy of the criminal justice system is restored.