Teardrops on the hill

The police version was it had ordered a search after receiving reports that the rallyists were carrying arms and that it opened fire only after the activists attacked. But a subsequent CBI inquiry concluded that the official version was incorrect.

Says Pushpesh Pant, professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal University who has followed the case closely: ‘‘In Gujarat, at least you had a retrial. Here there is little hope for justice. It’s very disturbing that this could happen in an area that was so close to Delhi. Also, since this was part of a movement and people had collected from different villages, the numbers of people killed, raped or missing are vague.’’

Five days after the incident, the Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court, following which the court ordered a CBI inquiry. There were about 800 cases but the CBI looked into 64 (including earlier incidents of police firing at Mussoorie and Khatima in September 1994 and a few cases against activists too) and filed chargesheets only in 43 — of them seven concerned rape and 17 molestation.

One case has got a stay from the High Court. Of the remaining 42, three have ended in acquittal and four in conviction. But none of the top bureaucrats and police officers chargesheeted have been prosecuted.

Two cases that were against the activists have been withdrawn at the request of the Uttaranchal government. At present, 33 cases are pending in CBI courts in Dehra Dun, Lucknow and Ghaziabad.

In 1994, a National Commission for Women team, headed by chairperson Jayanti Patnaik, toured the hills and submitted its findings: ‘‘It is our conclusion that on Oct 1/2 the district machinery at Muzaffarnagar not only failed to ensure safety and security of the women present in the rally … but became totally brutal and inhuman, in outraging women’s modesty, attacking, molesting and looting them.’’

Says senior journalist and president of the Uttaranchal unit of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajendra Dhasmana: ‘‘In my independent capacity, I had documented the confessions of many affected women — about 58 had admitted being raped/molested but not all came forward and accepted it before the CBI.’’

In a judgment in February 1996, the Allahabad High Court came down heavily on the Mulayam Singh-led UP government. It ordered compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the rape victims. The Supreme Court later set aside parts of the judgment, on the grounds that the state government could not afford the sum.

Last year the case sprung up again in Uttaranchal’s consciousness. On July 22, 2003, the Nainital High Court quashed the charge of culpable homicide against Anant Kumar Singh, district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar at the time. There are four criminal cases pending against Singh for wrongful detention of activists.

The judgment triggered a series of protests and finally the High Court recalled its order. Interestingly one of the judges who quashed the case — M M Ghildiyal — had earlier fought the case on the activists’ behalf.

Meanwhile, the implicated officers have moved on, to plum postings. Anant Kumar Singh is the revenue secretary in Lucknow and Bua Singh, then DIG, Meerut Range, is now Additional DGP in the UP police. Mulayam too is back as chief minister.

In Uttaranchal, the Muzaffarnagar case comes to life occasionally as yet another opportunity for the Congress and BJP to trade charges and blame each other. And somewhere in the faraway hills, a woman is slowly losing faith in the system.