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


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