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| The Hindu Newspaper Editorial Vocabulary : 22-November-2018 -For Various Competitive Exams |
Justice, 34 years on: on the conviction in the anti-Sikh riots case
The conviction of two men offers a glimmer of hope to other victims of the anti-Sikh pogrom
The conviction of two rioters for their role in
the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi marks a rare success in the long struggle
to bring the perpetrators
to justice. Of particular significance is that this case, relating to a mob
attack on shop-keepers in Mahipalpur, was resurrected after being closed as ‘untraced’
in 1994. The attack with deadly weapons left two Sikhs dead and three wounded.
The Central government’s decision in 2015 to form a Special Investigation Team
(SIT) to reopen serious cases related to the 1984 riots has yielded results.
Yashpal Singh, a goods transporter, has now been sentenced to death, and Naresh
Sehrawat, the local postman when the mob attack took place, to life. The trial
court has rightly brushed aside minor discrepancies in evidence and
technical objections to the fresh investigation being taken up, and concluded
that the testimony
of key witnesses, who were themselves injured, was cogent and reliable. It is
possible to argue that there is little justice, or even meaning, in securing
the conviction of those who may have been sucked into the mob frenzy that followed Indira
Gandhi’s assassination.
However, it cannot be forgotten that obtaining a conviction in instances of
communal and sectarian
riots is quite rare. Investigators and prosecutors seldom succeed in nailing
political leaders and their key henchmen. Impunity for participants in pogroms has been
the norm, and successful prosecution the rare exception. The last time a person
involved in the anti-Sikh riots was sentenced to death was in 1996. But Kishori
Lal, known as ‘the butcher of Trilokpuri’, managed to get his
death sentence commuted to life.
Investigation into the 1984 riot cases has been
severely hampered
by the fact that large sections of the police connived with the rioters, who
included Congress functionaries and supporters. The slow judicial process was
made even more excruciating
by manipulated
investigation and shoddy prosecution. In this very case, a
long-time Congress functionary, Jai Pal Singh, had been tried and acquitted by
a magistrate’s court as early as in 1986. However, the witnesses who identified
Naresh and Yashpal among the 800-odd rioters at Mahipalpur, had once again said
Jai Pal Singh was a prominent participant in the attack. This is just one instance
of how influential men have managed to evade the law. An appeal challenging the acquittal
of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is in the Delhi High Court. Apart from the
cases that have been reopened by the government-appointed SIT, the Supreme
Court constituted a team to investigate 186 cases. The latest verdict
demonstrates that the efflux of years need not be an impediment
to the project of securing justice. It offers a glimmer of hope for substantial
justice despite the passage of 34 years.
01. Conviction (noun) – declaration/pronouncement of guilt,
sentence.
02. Glimmer (noun) – faint sign, trace, hint.
03. Pogrom (noun) – massacre/mass killing,
carnage, persecution/destruction..
04. Perpetrators (noun) – someone who does immoral,
harmful and illegal activities.
05. Resurrected (verb)
– revive, restore, re-establish.
06. Brushed aside (phrasal verb)
– dismiss, disregard, ignore.
07. Discrepancies (noun) – inconsistency, difference,
variation/deviation.
08. Testimony (noun) – proof, evidence,
witness.
09. Cogent (adjective)
– valid, effective; logical/clear.
10. Sucked into (verb) –
involve in, draw into, implicate in (without someone’s desire).
11. Frenzy (noun) – turmoil, madness/wild behaviour,
agitation.
12. Assassination (noun) – murder, killing.
13 .Sectarian (adjective) – denoting a sect (a group of
people); factional, partisan.
14. Prosecutors (noun) – a lawyer who presents the
government’s case against someone accused of a crime.
15. Nailing (verb) – catch, capture, arrest.
16. Henchman (noun) – helper, supporter, assistant.
17. Impunity (noun) – immunity, exemption/freedom from
punishment, special treatment.
18. Butcher (noun) – murderer, killer, assassin.
19. Hampered (verb) – hinder, impede, restrict.
20. Connive (verb) – disregard, overlook, deliberately
ignore.
21. Excruciating (adjective) – torturing, afflicting,
distressing.
22. Manipulated (verb) – falsify, distort/alter,
misrepresent,.
23. Shoddy (adjective) – poor-quality/inferior, careless,
improper.
24. Evade (verb) – elude, avoid, dodge.
25. Acquit (verb) – discharge, release, declare innocent.
26. Efflux (noun) – discharge, leak/flow, emanation.
27. Impediment (noun) – hindrance, obstruction, barrier.
Note: All meanings took from Oxforddictionaries.com and Google.co.in only
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