Justice for hapless tribal victims after more than 19 years
More than 19 years after forest and police officials descended on Vachathi, a tribal hamlet in western Tamil Nadu, and committed atrocities on hapless villagers in a raid said to be against sandalwood smuggling, a district and sessions court here on Thursday found 215 government officials and employees guilty and handed down prison terms ranging from two years to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Seventeen persons were convicted of the charge of rape.
Among the senior officials found guilty by Principal District and Sessions Judge S. Kumaraguru were a retired Conservator of Forests, two serving Conservators and an Additional Chief Conservator of Forests.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which was directed by the Madras High Court to investigate the case, arraigned 269 officials of the Forest, Police and Revenue Departments, but only 215 lived to receive the verdict in a court thronged by victims, their family members and activists who had supported them over the years. The remaining 54 officials are dead.
On June 20, 1992, a large contingent of officials entered Vachathi following information that sandalwood was being illegally felled and smuggled. The team claimed to have recovered a huge quantity of sandalwood from a riverbed.
Later, the villagers complained that under the pretext of conducting a search, the raiding party had ransacked their property, destroyed houses and killed their cattle.
The most shocking charge was that the men in uniform had raped 18 women.
The State government denied the charges. The then Forests Minister, K.A. Sengottaiayan, now Agriculture Minister, had accused the entire village of being involved in sandalwood smuggling, and when a team of officials went there for investigation, the villagers had attacked them.
However, in 1995, on a writ petition filed by the then CPI (M) State secretary, A. Nallasivan, the Madras High Court handed over the probe to the CBI, which charge-sheeted the 269 officials. Later, compensation was paid to the victims.
The senior-most official convicted was the first accused, M. Harikrishnan, a retired Conservator of Forests, who was awarded a three-year prison term under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code for causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen the offender, and another three years of rigorous imprisonment and Rs.1,000 in fine under Section 3(2)(1) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Accused number 2, Additional Chief Conservator of Forests P. Muthaiyan, was sentenced to jail for a year under Section 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC. Conservator of Forests, Dindigul, L.Nathan was given a one-year term. S. Balaji, Conservator of Forests, Chennai, was awarded three-year rigorous imprisonment on three counts, but the terms would run concurrently. He was also fined Rs.5,000.
Keywords: Vachathi case
It was very rightly said that, without the support of CPI(M) and Tamil nadu Tribal Association , this wouldnt have been possible... Salute to CPI(M) and to its cadres...
My sincere thanks to CPI(M), the accused should be given atleast 20 years and 2 years is too small a time for an offense of this magnitude, I am happy like the villagers to see these sinners go to jail,
We can somewhat gain our hope on our law now. We should still go a long way but since we’ve already started it's not a big deal. Like some of you said govt. need to stop their entire pension and give the money to the victims and their families. And the punishment should be minimum of 15 years so no one should ever think about committing this kind of crime.
Salute to CPI_M leaders and cadres who support for the oppressed people to get justice.
We have a judicial system where judges and magistrates have been themselves involved in crime and get away and murderers and rapists will always be proved to be innocent. 54 accused dead in this particular cases alone, rest are alive. You know what - they will enjoy - its the guarantee of our justice system. Custodial deaths, police torture, assaults are the norm in India. Supreme court, if one recalls only expressed objection to Narco analysis but never said anything about police torture. Majority of crime in India is never reported or falsely reported. We do not have proper forensic procedures and labs. In our judicially system, the victims are effectively criminals and the actual criminals (including the tainted police) are innocent.
What about the then forest minister and now agri minister, who has misled the public?
The Judge had hurriedly passed the judgement throwing sentences ranging from 2 to 5 years for each count as he wanted to close the case as the case was pulling on for 19 long years. Except a few, most of the officials are innocent as they know the enormity of the offenses thrown against them by the CBI. Most of the officers and staff of Forest and Police Departments who are sentenced now will most certainly be found innocent and released in the higher courts. Any case that filed under the Act to prevent atrocities to SC/ST has far resulted only in conviction in the lower courts and many have been found innocent by the higher courts. We know we are in the world of surprises and sensationalism and even law enforcing and judicial machinery also indulge thereon to get some respite from public criticism.
a landmark judgment though delayed but not denied; the entire credit goes to the CPIM , the only vanguard of the underdogs of this unjust system & the CBI which did its best to bring the culprits to book; the fact that the thugs in the khaki uniform had the active support of both the then ruling party as well as the opposition DMK that claims to represent the interests of the downtrodden Tamil masses goes to prove the irrefutable truth as evidenced by this real life story that these utterly corrupt & highly self-centered Dravidian parties are really anti-people to the core. But for the single-minded & strenuous efforts of the CPIM cadres & leaders who didn't allow the unscrupulous elements to intimidate the witnesses or to buy the hapless tribal victims the CBI & the honorable Court couldn't have been able to deliver the goods; we must also make mention of the honesty & sincerity of the high placed officials of the National SC/ST COMMISSION who initially had gone into the issue to establish the case on a solid ground. But the enigmatic part of the story is that the CPI-M doesn't have much political influence on the tribals of this village even today; when it comes to real politics they prefer the other parties which have never stood by them; this scenario is a fit case for analysis by the political scientists!
If these atrocities are done to us what would be our reaction? If this history is allowed to repeat in the family of the these government officials, what would be their confession? When are we going to treat our neighbors as human beings? Remember, God has created every one, including the tribal people, in His image. Let us not fight against God!
This is a true case of how a political party can rightly serve the society. All felicitations to CPI(M).Among the myriad of non-issues that political parties cook-up as part of their game, this stands out as a shining example for what a party should actually do. Paradoxically, this also is an example of why the communist parties are necessary for the success of democracy in India, where a perverted sense of social justice is the norm even to this day. I am not a communist, but then this is much more than communism.
It is heartening to note that after more than 19 years a district and sessions court found 215 government officials and employees guilty. Justice has been done to the victims. The State government should pay necessary compensation to the victims and see that they are rehabilitated. Government jobs for those deserving should be given as a measure of solace. Also the officials responsible for this mess should be made to adopt the victims or pay compensation so that such incidents are not repeated.
It is, indeed a landmark judgment! 19 years of ordeal for the hapless lot looking towards justice bearing with the wounds of humiliation, physical violence and sexual assault! With all these things in the backdrop, these innocent-lot had to unfailingly identify and testify against the offenders and perpetrators of the worst-ever attack against in the hilly region. This they have done with remarkable precision and commitment led by the Thamizhaga Malai Vaazh makkal sangam. One recalls with tears and pride the salutary role played by Comrade A Nallasivan, the then State Secretary of the CPI-M who rushed to Vachathi to have a first hand knowledge of the gravity of the situation and console, comfort and convey solidarity with the victims braving this insinuatory comments of the then ruling clique. Hats off to the crusaders concerned in having the legal battle fought to the nearest perfection possible lest the influential lobby would ensure acquittal of the accused.
A shocking news to me. We are ashamed of the attitude of our government officials. Damn shame. And at the same time does it take so much of time of 19 years to find out the justification. Now it is the time to review the judiciary also.
Such dreaded act deserves Punishment,but it's shocking to know that victims got justice after 19 years.
How is justice severed?? 57 already dead!!! Shame on our judicial system!!
The old adage that "Justice delayed is Justice denied" has been proven to be not always true.The long wait of over 19 years has not been in vain for the residents of the tribal hamlet of Vachathi.The adequacy or otherwise of the punishment meted out to the Forest, Revenue and Police departments after all these years is not too relevant.But justice did catch up with the wrong doers.Of course the process of appeals to the higher courts will begin.It is only to be hoped that these criminals be made to realize that every appeal is going to cost them dearly by the appellate authority enhancing the jail terms and the monetary fines substantially so that the victims and their relations will have the satisfaction that the Government and God have not let them down.
"Justice delayed is justice denied".
My God, what justice? It took more than 19 years to mete out justice to 215 forest and police officials who had committed atrocities on hapless villagers of the tribal hamlet, Vachathi, in West Tamil Nadu. The Principal District and Sessions Judge on Thursday found all of them guilty and sentenced them to prison terms from 2 to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment....yes 2 to 10 years...after a period of 19 years!! In fact the original number of officials charged was 269, 54 died during the period of wait, remainder 215 were charged and found guilty as stated. It begs the question whether it is "truly" justice?
Well finally the judgement is made after 19 years. It is a strong and dareful punishment to whoever involved in the crime. Must praise the judiciary and CBI for identifying and involving all the memebers who are all convicted. Does this punishment really should wait these many years. If it would have been 10 years earlier atleast, everyone would have praised more and whoever suffered might have felt better.CBI & Judiciary should think about expediting the process
Its a miracle that these guys have been convicted. But it is absolutely shameful to see how the court procedure took 20 years as result 54 convicts died before the verdict. And also i feel the sentence is very small. These guys should be given a minimum of 15 years.
Finally, justice at last to people less fortunate but 19 years was a long time.The report did not contain how many victims are still alive to see justice was done.
What a tragedy.Justice delayed is justice denied.54 accused are dead.What about their punishment. Family pension should be stopped. Let the victims be given full moral support so that no such incindence would occur again. Thanks to the investigating authority for submitting proper record because we have seen no body is punished in such mass crime.
We can be proud to be Indian, now. Recent times, we felt that the law and order situation is a buy-able product in India. Though the lapse of 19 years is not commendable in the juristic field, we can relieve by the judgement. Let me congratulate the Sessions Judge S Kumaraguru for his courageous and just judgement.
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