Best Bakery Jessica Lal
And The Cake Of JusticeBy Sorit Gupto
09 March, 2006
Countercurrents.orgIt is just a mere coincidence that nine persons has convicted in Best bakery and nine has been acquitted in the Jessica lal murder case but the recent judgments on both the cases presents some typical characteristics of the criminal justice system of India.
What ever the outcome of the judgments , the role of the police was one of the most decisive factor, beside the eyewitnesses who turned hostile. Now every one is making noises against the eyewitnesses, asking for some stringent laws to check them turning hostile , but what about the role of the police particularly in these cases?
To understand the real working style of the police department, here, it is worth mentioning the statement of Mr. Justice Bannerjee on Godhra incident published in The Hindu on March 4 th issue according to which "… Mr. Justice Banerjee said the police refused to cooperate with him initially and came forward to depose only after a year when he invoked his powers under the Commission of Inquiry Act."
Now turning on to the Jessica Lal and Best bakery case.
Except the verdict , both the cases mentioned above has various similarities with one another and the most important of these are the role of the investigative agencies particularly the role of Police or the state for example, both of the cases are famous or infamous for the tampering off of the evidences, deliberately by none other that the very investigative agencies by themselves.
But justice at last.At least in Best bakery case, where nine convicts are sentenced to life imprisonment. The time period in between the crime and the punishment for this particular case is roughly four years. Compared it with other cases, in our country the speed of the trial is fair enough, but one should keep in the mind that this is not because of the much hyped Fast Track Court or any other thing but because of the proceedings of the 'Re- Trial' out side the state of Gujarat, which has actually made the whole difference.
After that ,following the path of justice shown by the Best Bakery case , voices are being raised in demand of the proceedings of the retrial of Jessiac Lal case out side of Delhi.
However this is the most dangerous out come of the judgment given by both the cases. By giving orders to the retrial of the Best Bakery, the Apex court of India , by one way or other has admitted the fact that, dealing with the case in the state of Gujarat ,there were rampant misuse of power by the state and it's investigation agencies which had crossed all limits to save the culprits.
Re trial and that is again 'out side' the area of the crime is another bad precedent, because accepting this we are actually accepting the biased behavior of the police department. Don't we heading towards a time where for seeking justice one has to fight in any other court except the local one?
If one is not getting justice after first trial than what is the guaranty that the justice will be deliver in re trial. Here question should be asked that how many of retrials should be allowed ? The fundamental base of the retrial basically is to discard the whole proceeding of the former one and all other factors associating with it. Some one should be held responsible for the wastage of time , energy ,the harassment and the suffering of the common man, because after all it's the tax payers money through which the investigating agencies , the courts and each and every apparatus of the state is running, and any misuse of the above is actually the misuse of the money of the tax payer.
Though for some unknown reasons court has spared very state investigative agencies with mild warning for their 'negligence' and 'callousness' and on the other hand they have indicted Jahira Sheikh , the key eyewitness, and few other people for changing their versions during the proceedings.
If the police department is really so callus then why the officials are still continuing with their job over there? Do we need callus , inefficient officers in our police department?
What kind of massage comes out by not indicting those 'callous' police officers? As a matter of fact , by tampering with the witness, by not registering the FIR at right moment, by not providing proper security to the key eye witness , by not cooperating with the court proceedings, as for example, by not providing the very video CD to the trial court in which Manu Sharma, the main accused in the Jessica Lal case, has admitted about his crime, the police department has actually saved the culprit.
Instead of acquitting the investigating officials by using mild words like 'callousness' and 'negligence' they should be indicted for acting on behalf of the culprit.
And lastly, the above two judgment has shown that how much lapses( read deliberate attempt) can be made to distort the criminal justice system in 'high profile' cases to favor a particular group or an individual, one can just imagine , what we actually have for the common and ordinary citizen in our criminal justice system.
The acquittal of all the persons charged with the murder of the model Jessica Lal results in much hue and cry from more or less all the sections of the society. It seems that one can not get justice in present day circumstances , and right that moment we come across the best bakery judgment which 're-established' the faith of the society and the common man on our criminal justice system.
But is it realy truth? Do we really regained our lost faith on our criminal justice system?
Contrary to that, we indeed need a retrial, but not a retrial in that sense. We need the trial of the investigative agencies and various arms of the state who are serving not for the people but on the behalf of some one else , and mostly for the culprit , be it an individual or a state. We need to indict those who are playing with the justice. We need to indict those who are harboring and saving the culprits .
Until then ,The answer of the above question is a big NO.
