Just Ice

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Feb 15: The two persons who were found guilty of murdering a KSRTC conductor during the violence unleashed by the RSS activists in the city in July 2000 have been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 15,000 each. Twenty-three others, except the Hindu Aikya Vedi leader J. Sisupalan, were sentenced to up to four years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed fines for various charges, including conspiracy, unlawful assembly, destruction to public property and rioting. Thiruvananthapuram Fast Track Court judge Y. Tajudeen announced the judgment on Wednesday.


Kochi,Feb 16: The Kerala High Court today suspended the sentence of 23 accused, who were awarded imprisonment upto four years in the case relating to the murder of a KSRTC bus conductor during the violence allegedly unleashed by RSS activists in Thiruvananthapuram in July 2000.The fast track court, Thiruvananthapuram, had yesterday convicted and sentenced 25 accused in the case. While two of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, 23 others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment upto 4 years.

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It is interesting to see how things can change in less than 24 hours.

It took over 6 years to prosecute the guilty and for justice to prevail, and that too by the action of a "Fast Track" court. But to undo the work, the High Court for a change showed excellent merit and speed, speed quicker than any Fast Track court. Speed contrary to the usual rate at which "justice" is usually served on a platter, speeds which have given rise to Fast Track courts in the first place.

Whether the High Court has shown particular vested interest in this case to overturn the decision of a lower court is open to debate, and best not discussed here, and lack of evidence is too common a citing. But how do we depend on such a judicial system?

I absolutely and whole-heartedly believe in justice and I hope justice prevails everywhere and on everyone.

But can the judiciary keep over-turning and alternating its verdicts? Are the judges in the lower courts less qualified? Are they just there for the heck of it? Or are they proponents of injustice? Or do they take bribe? Or is it the other way round? So many questions keep popping up when you see judgements like this.

Would doctors be allowed to make decisions like this? What if a doc thought someone had brain tumor and removed a piece of his brain and tomorrow another doctor asked for it to be stitched back? What would we have? More judges? But seriously, would people tolerate it? If that would be negligence, why are judges not accountable for such merry-go-round decisions?

Anyway I did not write this post to question the judiciary, because I am not competent or knowledgeable enough. But definitely its something we all need to think about.

More painful is the state of the system of the state.

Take the verdict by the Fast Track Court - which was anyway suspended by the HC - in the backdrop of the actual incident:

The incident occurred on July 13, 2000 when the Sangh Parivar organisations turned violent during a protest march. The parivar (in the name of God, ofcourse) caused massive destruction to government and public property worth crores of rupees. (I remember the incident and scores of vehicles were destroyed, buildings rampaged and public beaten up.) Meanwhile, some of the agitators broke into the KSRTC bus depot at East Fort, Trivandrum and attacked the workers there. The deceased Mr.Rajesh, a bus conductor, who was caught unawares, was brutally beaten up using maintainence tools lying at the depot. The next day at hospital he passed away as a result of his grievious injuries.

How can we tolerate such incidents? Imagine a person, doing his duties and earning a living for his family, being beaten up by a bunch of criminals in the name of politics and religion. Put yourself in that situation. I shake my head in shame when I think that such incidents occur on a daily basis in the state of Kerala, and the rest of the Keralites like imbeciles tolerate such political and religious (of any community, and not just one) organisations.

If I was the judge I would have ordered these cold-blooded criminals to be punished with maximum penalty. Perhaps thats why I am not a judge, because my emotions overwhelm me when I hear of such heartlessness. But how else can we stop such brutality, various tones of the which seem to be instilled in the daily life of Keralites.