Lal

[Guest guest]

I have been following with much interest 2 recent judgements that have been

in the news this week-the first being the Best Bakery riot convictions and

the JL case acquittals.

I know that the policy of the group is to steer clear of religion related

topics so I will not say much about the former-but both have a common thread

running thru them-that of witnesses turning hostile.And worse the latter has

come to signify a malaise in our society which is all pervading and

nauseating to the core.

I will not bore everyone with the details-hovewer for those who have been to

busy to read the news this week-JL was a young model who was murdered at a

posh Delhi restaurant called Tamarind court owned by Bina Ramani-a pg 3

socialite-by a gunshot allegedly fired by Manu Sharma for refusing to serve

him a drink.Also implicated were 2 friends Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Gill.So

a crime takes place-there are loads of eyewitnesses and if A SHOT HAS BEEN

FIRED THERE MUST BE A WEAPON-so what is the problem-its an easy one!Does not

need a Mr Poirot does it?

But these were the children of ministers and politicians and top

executives.So top lawyers are hired,investigations are bungled,the weapon

was never recovered,the forensic report said there were 2 wounds from

different guns and 8 yrs later the accused who had been out on bail

anyway-one has been meanwhile implicated in another murder-walk free because

all the key eyewitnesses turned hostile!!!

And in case you wonder whether this is an isolated incident-no-sometime ago

Sanjeev Nnda,grandson of Admiral Nanda drove while drunk over and killed

6(if I remember right)people in Delhi-again witnesses turned hostile-and no

convictions came thru!!

There are probably loads of instances like so-worse this is a lifestyle that

we aspire to nowadays-lagga ho paisa ho-phir kis ka darr hai bhai.Drink

driving is taken so lightly its amazing and I must plead guilty too until I

was in India I was very complacent-one for the road used to be the

philosophy at parties-but in the UK its totally different-we decide before

we go out who shall be driving back and then stick to coke-the drink

version!No other reason but you know if you are caught U r in deep

trouble-in fact on the continent the laws are much more stringent and that

is even tho most of Europe is a serious wine drinker.

So why do we not agonise about this very basis of a free and civil

society-that justice must be done but also seen to be done.Our police dept

sadly lacks credibility-how many of us women will feel comfortable going

into a police stn to record a complaint?

And every day comes up witha Salman Khan-or a Std Chartered bank VP or a

Shiv Sena bigwig running over and killing someone-it makes headlines -then

it is forgotten-victims ko khareed lo-court mein appeal karte jao-and live

life Kingsize(thats the Wills ad)

What strck me most was the resignation in the voices of JL's family on

TV-they did not even hope that justice would be done- they knew ki acquittal

hoga.And it was admitted by the defence that it was only possible becoz of

lack of evidence.

So who is to blame-the high and mighty for pulling out alll the stops to

save one of their own-our justice system which relies so much on

eyewitnesses and less on circumstatial evidence-us for not

bothering-witnesses who commit perjury?And what happens when the ball is on

the other foot-or is it ever?

An RdeB on this one?

'82