The Hindu : National : SI gets life term for ordering fire on Dalits

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SI gets life term for ordering fire on Dalits

Staff Reporter

Court: Kadam did not comply with single-firing norm
Verdict an outcome of people’s fight for justice: prosecution

Mumbai: Manohar Kadam, a sub-inspector with the State Reserve Police Force, was on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment for unjustifiably ordering fire on Dalits here, in which 10 people were killed and 26 injured.

Mr. Kadam had ordered his police team to open fire indiscriminately on protesting Dalits at Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in suburban Ghatkopar on July 11, 1997.

A special sessions court, giving its verdict in the Ramabai case 12 years after the incident, sentenced Mr. Kadam under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC.

Shakeel Ahmed, who represented one of the victims, said the court stated Mr. Kadam had not complied with the single-firing norm, nor had he taken any precaution. He had not assessed the situation and did not have a megaphone to warn the people, who were protesting against the desecration of a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. He ordered the firing within 15 minutes of his reaching the sport at 7 a.m.

The court rubbished the police allegations that the Dalit protesters planned to set an oil tanker afire, stating they did not carry deadly arms. Rejecting the contention that they endangered public safety, the court referred to a witness statement that the protesters had asked passengers to alight from a bus. This showed that they had no intention of causing hurt, Mr. Ahmed said.

In a charged atmosphere outside the court, special public prosecutor B.G. Bansode told journalists: “The judgment is the outcome of people’s fight for justice. We had to struggle at every step to register the case, record statements of witnesses and file a charge sheet.”

Delaying tactics

The Ramabai case was plagued by many ills. Allegations of delaying tactics by the state machinery and political manipulation were rife during the trial. Many saw the postponement of the verdict from April 27 to May as a deliberate design to mitigate its impact on the April 30 elections.

It took the government four years just to appoint a prosecutor. The government was simply not interested in the case, Mr. Bansode said.

Sangharaj Rupawate, watching advocate for the victims, said the incident had raised the hackles of Dalits. It galvanised them into staging strong protests and demanding the overthrow of the then Sena-BJP government in 1997.

To muzzle dissent, stories of rioting were concocted against the victims. But these were discarded by the state-appointed Gundewar Commission, which investigated the killings, and now by the court.

Throughout the trial, there was an attempt to malign the Dalits as irresponsible, and as rioters holding the city to ransom. There were counter-cases against the victims, Mr. Rupawate said.

Eight victims have had rioting cases slapped on them. Showing her scarred hand, Sudevi Ramchandra Gire, 35, said: “I was shot in the palm. I had come only to take my son inside the house; and they say I was rioting.” She has a case under the Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC.

Hiraman Sadashiv Gaikwad, 46, was shot in the stomach. Although he welcomed the verdict, he wished to see Mr. Kadam hanged. Similar comments were heard all around.

Sumedh Jadhav of the Ramabai Hatyakand Sangharsh Samiti said big names in the establishment who might have asked Mr. Kadam to give the firing orders escaped unscathed.

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