Justice Denied

Irtif Lone

Only if the dead could rise and tell their tales we might have few answers to some unanswered historical questions. But then it’s very unlikely that dead will rise again before the judgement day. And it’s very unlikely that they can tell the tales of their brutal murders, of how they were killed so as to get some justice in this world which with every passing day sets new standards of theoretical moral conduct but fails practically.

There is this story of five men who were killed in a small village of south Kashmir. Imagine this, five people who were living their life normally were picked up one day and even before they realised what had happened, they were killed. And then were labelled as foreign militants and were held responsible for a Massacre which had taken place a couple of days before their murder. These five people have shared no relation or friendship but death has brought them together and they for the times to come will be remembered as that single unfortunate incident which brought them together in death and made their remembrance collective.

This is not a story narrated by some separatist but is the version which highest investigating agency of India, CBI has given. But, then the justice was not delivered. Not that the justice would help bring the killed to life or would soothe the pain of their kith and kin, but then brining the culprits to books is the least that can be done.

And very recently the army closed the case, saying the evidence was not enough to prove anything against them. And this was after the CBI had investigated the case and was of the opinion that this was a fake encounter and the killed were innocent villagers. But as the poet has said,

Mera qatil hi mera Munsiff hai…

Kya mera Haq mai faesela degaa?

Even though the expectations of receiving justice were high on the basis that the inquiry had been conducted by CBI but the judgement was distrustful. There have been hundreds of other human right violations which have taken place in last two decades but it’s very unlikely that the perpetrator of these crimes will be brought to justice.

This time around it has not been the separatist alone who have raised a hue and cry, but main stream politicians too felt cheated. An incident happened in 2000 and only after the CBI did the investigation and Supreme Court intervened and gave an option to try the case in civil court or army court, army took up the matter and started the proceedings in their court and some fourteen years after the incident had happened came the judgement that the evidence could not prove the case. Leaving everybody dejected including the politicians and media.

This case makes me remember a Bollywood movie Shaurya. This movie revolves around the court martial of a Muslim officer who is accused of killing his commanding officer. But then, he gets lucky to get a lawyer who somewhere half way the proceedings realises the plight of this Muslim officer, digs deep into the circumstances and gets him justice. The Muslim Officer is then let free and Brigadier Rudra Pratap (played by KK Menon) is held guilty.

But then this can only happen in movies. In real case scenario it’s very unlikely to happen, and least when it is related to Kashmir.