Lawyer Rebecca John Recounts The ‘Very Very Difficult’ Journey Of The Hashimpura Massacre Trial
On the night of 22
May, 1987, the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary rounded up 42 Muslim
men from Hashimpura in Meerut, put them in a truck, drove them to a canal in
Ghaziabad and shot them. It took seven years
for the Uttar Pradesh government to complete its investigation, and another two
years for the state to file a charge sheet against the 19 accused policemen in
a local court in Ghaziabad, where the case was stuck until 2002, when the Supreme
Court moved it to New Delhi.
It would be another 15
years before a trial court in Delhi ruled that 42 Muslim men were indeed
executed, but there was no clinching evidence against the 16 surviving
policemen accused in the case. This week, on 31 October, 2018, the Delhi High
Court, sentenced the accused men to life
imprisonment for the "targeted
killing" of the Muslim victims. While, on the one
hand, it has taken 31 years for the victims to get justice, the Hashimpura
verdict is one of the rare instances where mass violence in India might not go
unpunished.
In a conversation
with HuffPost India, Rebecca John, who has represented the families
of the victims for 15 years, spoke of the "very very difficult"
journey of the Hashimpura case, the joy after the verdict, and the hidden
evidence which made the Delhi High Court overturn the trial court's ruling.
What does justice
after 31 years mean, as the lawyer in this case?
The fact that these
men have been convicted, it means a lot to me. When you are officers of the
court, and when you are part of a system, this is what we fight for. People who
are innocent should be acquitted and people who are guilty should be convicted.
In a case as gross as this, where police officers were involved in the gruesome
murder of these men, it was a very tough journey because it was very difficult
to answer the victims as to why it was taking as long as it was taking. Why one
court chose to acquit these people although they were conscious of the fact that
the state of UP had not put up its best efforts to give evidence before the
court, and had spent the large majority of its time suppressing evidence. It's
been a very very difficult journey, but the verdict, 31 years too late, was
still a verdict we welcomed and overjoyed about.
How do you see
getting a verdict in this case, when other cases of mass violence, 1984
anti-Sikh riots, Kunan Poshpora, have not been resolved?
You can't compare two
criminal cases. The only limited thing that I can say is that criminal cases
must be investigated within a reasonable time frame. You cannot take 10-12
years to investigate a case and that's happened in all cases of mass violence.
Secondly, courts must show a sense of urgency because these are not ordinary
cases. I'm not saying one death is less important than another death, but
courts must be cognizant of cases of mass violence, and they must approach this
differently from ordinary criminal cases and at least push the prosecution
within a reasonable time frame.That is not happening. And that is why you see
the kind of delays you see in our country.
Criminal trials take
forever to complete, but in cases of communal violence, mass custodial
violence, these delays are compounded even further because it does not suit
anyone to ensure quick justice particularly when the other side, people accused
of the crime are either police officers or people whom the state wants to
protect... read more:
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2018/11/02/interview-how-a-hidden-dairy-led-to-a-conviction-in-the-hashimpura-case-lawyer-rebecca-john-recounts_a_23578104/?utm_hp_ref=in-homepage