Apex court to abolish caste system

New Delhi: Thirty years after eight Dalits were massacred by upper caste Thakurs in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court has sentenced to life imprisonment five of the accused and said caste system should be abolished soon for ensuring rule of law and smooth functioning of democracy.

Reversing the acquittal of the six accused, the apex court said "unfortunately, the centuries-old Indian caste system still takes its toll from time to time. This case unfolds the worst kind of atrocities committed by the
so- called upper caste (Kshatriya or Thakur) against the so-called lower caste caste in a civilised country.

"It is absolutely imperative to abolish the caste system as expeditiously as possible for smooth functioning of rule of law and democracy in our country," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik said in a judgement.

The apex court said minor discrepancies in statements of witnesses should be ignored by courts in such carnages as they are bound to be under tremendous fear.

The accused belonging to Thakur caste butchered seven totally innocent persons belonging to Harijan caste and to wipe out the evidence of their atrocities, threw their bodies in the strong currents of the Ganges, the apex court said adding the massacre was carried out to teach a lesson to so-called lower caste and commit
dacoity at the village.

It was at the intervention of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram that the police had arrested 18 people in connection with the massacre on September 9, 1979, at village Lohari, under Hussainganj police station in Uttar Pradesh.

Those butchered in the massacre were Jasodiya, Ganga, Tulsi, Deo Nath alias Madan, Deen Dayal, Sukhlal and Shripal and the bodies were thrown in the Ganges. Out of seven, the bodies of five persons could never be recovered.

The sessions court convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 18 of the accused persons on 1982, against which the accused had appealed in the high court.

The case went on for 19 years in the high court and on January 10, 2001, the high court acquitted all the accused of the charges ignoring even the evidence of one of injured witness Kallu whose wife Jasoiya was
also killed in the carnage. Aggrieved, the UP government appealed in the apex court.

The apex court, which re-appreciated the entire evidence in the case, said the high court had taken an erroneous view and wrongly ignored the evidence of Kallu due to certain minor discrepancies in his
testimonies like not properly naming the accused.

The apex court noted that the witnesses were obviously terrified and it was only at the intervention of Indira Gandhi and Jagjivan Ram that the police swung into action and arrested the accused.

The appeal before the High Court was in the nature of first appeal and the High Court in a case of this nature was expected to carefully analyse the entire evidence and documents on record but unfortunately the
High Court without analysing the entire evidence set aside the judgement.

The eight persons, who were abducted and tied with rope, brought to the midstream of the river and after their murder, the bodies were thrown in the river one by one except that of Kallu who escaped by jumping into the river.

"In that fear psyche, naming the appellants would have meant risking his life and in that state of mind, the omission of mentioning the names of the appellants is not unnatural and her testimony cannot be discarded on that count," the apex court said.

According to the bench, the High Court has failed to appreciate the circumstances in which Kallu survived by jumping into the river and hiding at certain places.

"In a genocide and massacre which was witnessed by him, wherein all his seven close relatives including his wife, were killed one after other in his presence, his escaping the death was a miracle.

"Hiding and saving his life from a mighty cruel upper caste group was a normal human instinct. Any reasonable or prudent person would have behaved in the same manner. Immediately after his escape, he tried to make a complaint but he did not succeed", the court said.