Nearly 17 years after a blast in Malegaon town of north Maharashtra claimed six lives, a special court on Thursday acquitted all seven accused, including former BJP MP Pragya Thakur and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, noting there was “no reliable and cogent evidence” against them. No religion teaches violence, the court said. Terrorism has no religion, but the court cannot convict on mere perception, it added. Special Judge A.K. Lahoti, assigned to hear cases of National Investigation Agency (NIA) here, flagged several loopholes in the prosecution’s case, and the investigation carried out, and said that the accused persons deserved the benefit of doubt. ... HOW are the common people expected to look at this development ?

 

Do they take it as a normal legal proceeding in a Special Court and get over with it ? But then, just a few days ago, another court had said very candidly that the 12 accused in the Mumbai train blast case could not be believed to have committed the crime and so it was releasing all of them -- after nearly two decades. Then the Maharashtra Government approached the higher court and got a stay on the judgement. The higher court granted the stay, but said ‘no’ to asking the 12 accused to be sent back to jail.

 

That case, of course, would continue through the judicial motions. In the Malegon blast case, too, further steps in the multi-layered judicial process would be followed -- taking interminable time, testing the patience of the people accused and their devastated families. For sure, the lives of all such people who languish in prison for years without their fault having been defined stand fully shattered. There is no need to comment on the specifics of the cases -- which is the task of the judicial system in the country. But there is a serious and urgent need to question the propriety of such a judicial process that takes so long to come to some sensible comprehension of the legal details of a case and its prosecution and investigation. In the Malegaon case, too, when a political party has celebrated the release the seven accused, another has insisted that the acquittal should be challenged in a higher court. What kind of system are we saddled with -- legal, judicial, political, and social ? Again, there is no intension of blaming the legal and judicial systems that operate in our country. The purpose here is only to bring to fore the inner emotion of most of the people in the society about the flaws, faults, and foibles in the system crying for correction. For, if a bunch of people stay behind bars or out of the prison on bail for years, and the legal and judicial systems take their own sweet time to decide the cases, then there are obvious defects at some points that cry for a serious and urgent rectification. In the light of this glaring reality, if somebody innocently asks if the adage “justice delayed is justice denied” is right, then are we going to prosecute that person for contempt of court ?

 

The issue, therefore, assumes a seriousness that we cannot brush aside. For, the sluggish and indifferent system needs to be questioned and corrected most urgently. Unfortunately, none of us -- including the Government -- appears interested in taking steps to affect a rectification of a flawed system corrupted by whatever forces and influences. A few voices of concern apart, the larger society appears equally sluggish in its response to the flaws. The two cases mentioned earlier in this piece are among the latest examples of how the legal and judicial systems of the country are bogged down by flaws of our own creation. In recent times, those in power have claimed from the rooftops that they have rectified many laws and the system has now become smart. Do these two cases mentioned earlier here point to that reality ? Do they show that the society and its managers are even introspecting on such issues ? In the Malegaon case, Pragya Thakur now stands acquitted.

 

Meanwhile, she served one term as Member of Parliament as well -- getting treated as a political metaphor for whatever. The existing law permitted that all right. The law also permits Congress leaders Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi to be out on bail in the National Herald case, contest elections, and heap abuses on honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Aam Aadmi Party leader Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, too, gets legal permission to be out of bail and get engaged in election propaganda when he was in prison. And a convict in Punjab also contests an election and wins ! Do these examples not point to very serious flaws in the system ? And are we not going to correct those flaws once and for all ?

 

The common man of India is all confused. And in that mood, he tells the people around to start shrugging their shoulders and get over with the flawed system. Can India really make do with such a cancerous system ? For, if the common develops such an indifference because he is helpless, then the nation loses its moral fibre -- slowly, surely, steadily, clandestinely. Do we want such a country ? Do we want to live with such flawed systems without attempting any rectification ? These questions we must ask ourselves.