Let’s talk justice

Salman Khan, 40, was convicted of shooting a chinkara, a rare deer native to India, during a hunt in the Thar Desert in western India while taking a break from filming in 1998. He has been sentenced to five years in jail and was also fined 25,000 rupees by the court in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Passing sentence, Judge Vijender Kumar said that the star had committed “a heinous crime” that merited a tariff of “rigorous imprisonment”.

But the people incharge of ‘Law & Order’ made a mockery of these….

In Jessica Lal murder case; a women brutally murdered infront of around 100 people. After 7 years of on-going court drama, Prime accused Manu Sharma, son of serving Haryana minister Vinod Sharma, walked free along with eight others after the additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana said that there was no evidence against the accused and the prosecution had failed to prove its case. Witnesses turned hostile and circumstantial evidence ignored.

Priyadarshini Matoo, was murdered in 1996. The accused Santosh Yadav, a son of a senior Indian Police Service officer, escaped the punishment after the alleged murder of the 23-year-old in New Delhi. Additional sessions judge GP Thareja, while giving the ruling, said he knew the accused was guilty but was giving him the benefit of doubt. Santosh Yadav is now practising law in New Delhi courts.

Murder of outlook magazine’s cartoonist Irfan Hussain. On March 31, a city court had acquitted Mustafa Ansari, Sanjay Kumar, Heera Singh, Mohammed Jasin and Mohammed Shahid for want of evidence. Irfan was allegedly abducted and his body found in a bush along a highway in Ghazipur in September 1999. Once again witnesses turned hostile and circumstantial evidence ignored.

Manjunathan Shanmughan — IIM-Lucknow graduate and murdered sales officer of the IOC on 19th November 2005. All seven are in judicial custody. The eighth accused, Devesh Agnihotri, is absconding. All seven are in judicial custody. The eighth accused, Devesh Agnihotri, is absconding. Monu and his friend Devesh had pumped three and four bullets respectively into Manjunathan’s body. Law and order or the lack of it has to be addressed and this is not the only issue Manjunathan’s murder has thrown up. In this particular case, which pertains to the oil mafia, it is imperative to review as to why contamination of petro-fuel has become an organised crime. How long will it take to punish the guilty ?

Satyendra Dubey, the NHAI engineer was involved with the prestigious Golden Quadrilateral road project was killed in November 2003. He was murdered after he raised his voice against corruption in the GQ project and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister’s office. In his letter, Dubey, 31, had requested that his name be kept secret. But his name was leaked as the letter was sent from the PMO to the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways and then to the NHAI, with which Dubey was working as deputy general manager.The CBI probing his case has concluded that the engineer was killed in a road robbery.

Post Godhra riots. On March 28, Additional Sessions Judge Sonia Gokani sentenced the prime accused in the Mushtaq alias Kanio Ahmed Sheikh case to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 for murder and attempt to murder. Eight other persons were sentenced to 18 months in prison for unlawful assembly, possessing weapons and rioting. The judge also fined them Rs 3,000 each, or an additional two months in jail if they failed to pay the fine. Twenty-five other accused in the case were acquitted. The term was reduced due to lack of direct evidence and Piyush Motibhai’s father turning hostile.

Sankararaman murder case. On September 3, 2004, five men attacked Sankararaman in the Devrajasamy temple and stabbed him to death. Among those present at the scene were three temple employees who said they did not see the murderous assault; they said they only saw the backs of the killers. In his last letter dated August 30, 2004, which has since been reproduced in Nakkeeran, the Tamil magazine, he warned the Shankacharya: ‘I am going to court to remove you from the leadership of the Kanchi Math. You are misusing your authority.’ The case is still hanging in the courts and the accused are roaming free.

and the list goes on, on, on and on.