Justice denied

 

 

The failure of the Andhra Pradesh state government to appeal against the judgment of the special court for trying the sensational Tsundur Dalit massacre case within the stipulated time, allegedly has its obvious communal reasons.

The Tsundur Dalit carnage that rattled the nation was one of the most heinous crimes against Dalits in modern India. Eight Dalit persons were hacked to death in broad daylight on August 6, 1991, with over hundreds of upper caste people chasing them on the road and along the bund of an irrigation canal in Tsundur village of Guntur district, 300 km from Hyderabad. Their bodies were stuffed in gunny bags and thrown into the nearby irrigation canal. Many injured fled and saved their lives. Hundreds of Dalit families were left homeless. Approximately 95 percent of the 183 accused, who are from Tsundur and its neighbouring villages, Valiveru and Modukuru, are of the powerful Reddy community. It was alleged that the accused were given a hiding place in MLA quarters, as it was during the tenure of N. Janardhan Reddy as Chief Minister. Reddys are the dominant landowning community in Andhra Pradesh and have ruled for the most part since Andhra came into being. Dalits have been the largest number of victims of their feudal fantasies. In an alleged gesture of solidarity, the present Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy twice visited Modukuru village, when he was the leader of opposition in State Assembly. He, even as Chief Minister, scheduled to visit the area during the trial, but the district collector and the SP reportedly asked the CM to cancel the visit as the trial was going on in a special court in Tsundur.

Owing to the turbulent struggle that lasted for 13 long years by the victims and bereaved families, a special court was set up under the SCs, STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, at the place of offence, first time in independent India. Finally after 16 years, 21 accused persons have been sentenced to life imprisonment and 35 others to one year’s rigorous imprisonment and a penalty of Rs. 2,000 each and the judge acquitted 123 persons (rest of the accused died during trial).

According to the Special Public Prosecutor B. Chandrasekhar, whose appeal was sent to High Court Prosecutor’s office by August 27 itself, the convicted 21 persons deserved capital punishment, as it satisfies the criterion of ‘rarest of the rare’ cases. “The Special court failed to have comprehensive view of the brutal massacre and convicted the 21 accused for individual homicidal killings, instead of treating the massacre as a dastardly crime. The 35 persons, who were convicted for simple assault, shall also be held responsible for conspiracy and killings,” Chandrasekhar told TSI. Nevertheless, the State Government is indifferent to appeal in the High Court, within the time frame, as the judgment day was July 31, 2007. According to the Limitation Act, 1962, any appeal in the High Court against any order of acquittal has to be made within 60 days from the day of judgment, while the stipulated time for appeal to enhance the sentence, is 90 days.

Speaking to TSI when contacted, an official in High Court Public Prosecutors office averred that that “the High Court may take up the appeal if required by condoning the delay, if the reasons for delay are justifiable.”

But, here the question is whether the State Government has any justifiable reasons for the deliberate delay?