Mirchpur murders: HC convicts 33, says no let-up in atrocities on Dalits

THE VIOLENCE

NEWDELHI: The Delhi high court on Friday convicted 33 people in the 2010 anti-dalit violence in Haryana’s Mirchpur, lamenting the continuing trend of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in independent India. A bench of justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta overturned the acquittal of 20 people, who were let off by a trial court in 2011, while upholding the conviction of 13 others.

The court said the incident of April 21, 2010 — when groups of the dominant caste Jats attacked and torched settlements of the Balmiki caste — constituted an act of deliberate violence carried out in a “pre-planned” and “carefully orchestrated” manner.

“Seventy-one years after Independence, instances of atrocities against Scheduled Castes by those belonging to dominant castes have shown no sign of abating. The incidents that took place in Mirchpur between April 19 and April 21, 2010, serve as yet another grim reminder of “the complete absence of two things in Indian society” as noted by Dr BR Ambedkar when he tabled the final draft of the Constitution of India before the Constituent Assembly on 25th November, 1949. One was ‘equality’ and the other, ‘fraternity’,” the court said in its 209-page order.

Caste tensions flared up in Mirchpur on April 19,2010, after a dog belonging to a Balmiki man reportedly barked at some Jat men, triggering a verbal spat and physical clashes. Two days later, some Jats allegedly attacked the Balmikis and set their houses on fire, killing 60-year-old Tara Chand and his 17-year-old disabled daughter, who were burnt to death. April 19, 2010: Caste tensions flare up in Mirchpur after dog belonging to Balmiki man barks at Jat men, triggering spat and clashes. April 21, 2010: Jats attack Balmikis, set their houses on fire, killing 2 people. The ensuing violence forces 254 Dalit families to flee. September 24, 2011: A trial court in Delhi convicts 15 people out of 97 accused.