Mirchpur...
“One was ‘equality’ and the other, ‘fraternity’,”
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.
The ensuing violence forced 254 Dalit families to flee the village, who have since not been able to return to their village.
“The entire evidence, if read carefully, more than adequately demonstrates that there was a large scale conspiracy hatched by members of the Jat community to teach the Balmikis a lesson and pursuant to that conspiracy, houses of the Balmiki community were set on fire,” the court said.
Mirchpur village is located on the border between the Hisar and Jind districts of Haryana and is home to several communities such as the Lohars, Chamars, Balmikis, Brahmins and the Jats, who are the dominant among them, the court noted. The killings in Mirchpur was one in a string of atrocities against Dalits that has resulted in hundreds of deaths of Scheduled Caste men and women in recent decades. But in many such cases, such as the 1997 Laxmanpur Bathe killings in Bihar or the 1991 Tsun- duru massacre in Andhra Pradesh, trials result in acquittals because of poor investigation or lack of evidence.
The trial in the Mirchpur case began in 2011 in Hisar but the victims requested the case be moved out of Haryana. A court in north Delhi’s Rohini convicted 15 of 97 accused on September 24, 2011. Two convicts died during pendency of appeals. In October 2012, the 98th accused, who was earlier absconding, was tried and acquitted by the trial court.
Seven appeals were filed against this judgment by the accused, complainant and also the state in 2012. After Friday’s judgment, 12 people are facing life in jail, 12 have been given two years in prison and nine have been given one year in prison.
The bench directed the 20 additional convicts to surrender on or before September 1, failing which the station house officer of Narnaund, Haryana will take all necessary steps to take them into custody. The convicts were sentenced under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, including murder, rioting, mischief, voluntarily causing hurt. The victims welcomed the judgment but said their immediate demand was rehabilitation. “The court has announced a very good decision and I am hopeful that the other accused will also be behind bars soon. But our basic requirement is two rooms, education for our children’s and jobs,” Murti Devi, a victim living in a camp near Hisar, said.
The defence counsel indicated they might appeal the decision. “We have been advised to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. Then there might be appeals in the apex court by the people who have been convicted today,” advocate Mukesh Kalia, counsel for the defence, said.
(With agency inputs)