Justice triumphs

Of the many real and implied threats to the idea of India, the gravest by far is that of communal violence. Yet those who commit such violence have invariably slipped away unpunished under the anonymity of being part of a mob. Biased and inept investigation and prosecution have only assisted in the great escape. The significance of Friday8217;s verdict by Mumbai judge Abhay Thipsay in the Best Bakery retrial case is that it signals the certainty of punishment to the perpetrators of hate crimes at a time when public confidence in the criminal justice system was at a new low after the Jessica Lall verdict earlier this week.

The verdict is a ringing endorsement of the role played by sections of the media, civil society, organisations and individuals, especially Teesta Setalvad of Communalism Combat who, unfazed by vicious propaganda, stayed the course. For this newspaper, which doggedly reported on the tortuous course of the tragic Best Bakery case, the verdict is a vindication. It had graphically captured the pressure on witnesses in an interview with Zaheera Sheikh8217;s mother, in which she admitted to lying to the court, shortly after a Gujarat trial judge had acquitted all the accused in June 2003. It is gratifying therefore that the retrial verdict took due note of the crime of perjury, by issuing show-cause notices to all the witnesses who had turned hostile in the case. This should renew the focus on this vexed issue and help usher in the sort of reform of the criminal justice system that former Chief Justice of India, V.N. Khare, wrote about in these columns three days ago. The exoneration of the accused in the Jessica Lall case, followed by the conviction of nine people in the Best Bakery retrial case, could together prove a turning point in the history of Indian criminal jurisprudence. The Delhi High Court has in fact just issued a notice to the Delhi police on its handling of the Jessica Lall case.

Finally, this is about whether the country8217;s institutions rise up to their constitutional responsibilities. The Gujarat government flunked this test resoundingly in its handling the Gujarat carnage. Not only did it fail to protect the lives of hundreds of its citizens, it was also complicit in letting the perpetrators get away. It needed the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission and the highest court of the land to try and correct Chief Minister Narendra Modi8217;s odious lack of 8220;raj dharma8221;; to make up for what the apex court termed as the indifference of 8220;modern day Neros8221;. The are other cases from that infamous interregnum in Gujarat now awaiting the sagacity of the courts. Justice must continue to triumph.