Framing the innocents
Topic started by vohsendhan (@ 202.88.133.66) on Sun Mar 31 01:16:22 .
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Framing the innocents
Catch, carry to border and Kill:
Mr. Sarbjeet was picked up by the police, detained for several days and finally gunned down near the Indo-Pak border. It was, later on, found that the deceased had nothing to do with terrorist activities and was completely innocent. The Supreme Court has in this case ordered the CBI to conduct an inquiry.
-The Hindustan Times dt.6 Nov.1993.
Fix the poor, the easy suspect:
On a Sunday all the inmates of the house went to the church leaving a maidservant alone in the house. When they returned, they found that some precious jewellery was missing from the house. The maidservant was prosecuted for theft and convicted on the ground that she alone had exclusive opportunity.
After serving the sentence, the maidservant was walking in a street one day. A butcher tapped her on her back and remarked, "Oh, what a beautiful creature is this in nude!" She immediately remembered that on the day of theft this butcher visited the house to supply minced meat, and she took the meat and went inside to store it. She had then shut the doors, went up stairs and stood before a mirror. She then dressed herself and remarked looking at her body in the mirror:" Oh, what a beautiful creature is this in nude!" The butcher had obviously not gone out in the meanwhile but had hidden himself in the house and had heard this remark and now repeated it to the maidservant in the street. It was found he was responsible for the theft.
-Cited in Batuklal's Law of Evidence.
Surla and the CBI
Surla had been denied his right of movement when he was taken into custody in the case relating to acid attack on the former IAS Officer V.S. Chandralekha at Egmore on May 19, 1992. During the period of custody, he had been infected by AIDs. But the same CBI filed its statement in the court taht Surla must be discharged as no evidence waa available against him. On October 29, 1998 the CBI reiterated before the X Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore that necessary investigations had been made in Mumbai and other places. Only after satisfying itself that there was no evidence available against the accused was the final report filed. Nobody cared for the loss of six years of life of that man, until that day.(The Hindu, October 30, 1998)
Fix the poor always:
"In another case a maid servant was tried for murder of her mistress. On the day of the murder the accused and the deceased were in the house and all the doors and windows were shut from inside. The maidservant was convicted for the murder and sentenced to death on the ground that she alone had the exclusive opportunity to commit the murder. The maidservant was executed but later truth came to the light from the confession made by the real offenders. They said that they entered the house of the deceased by putting a wooden plank from the window of the adjacent house to the window of the deceased house, across the street, which was narrow. They committed the murder and went back the same way without leaving any clue." - Cited in Dr. V. Krishnamachari's Law of Evidence- Pages 38 &39
These instances prove that "it is highly dangerous to rely on the evidence of opportunity alone in the absence of substantial evidence to convict a person", says Dr. V. Krishnamachari.
Torture can achieve anything:
In Pandiammal case, her husband was fixed for the murder of Pandiammal and was tried in the court of law. The husband had confessed to have killed his wife. When the trial was over and the punishment was to be inflicted, his wife Pandiammal herself turned up in the court and said that she had not been murdered by anybody. It later turned out that the husband of Pandiammal had been tortured by the Police to such an extent that he had been made to confess that he had in deed murdered his wife. It was such a torture that made him confess that way even before the magistrate.
Fabricate and fix:
Rama Kamati was a rich and influential person. He was the supporter of the East India Company. He was however accused of having entered into correspondence with Kanoji Angare, a rebel chief who controlled the high seas of Maharashtra and was considered by the British as a pirate chief, as he was giving a lot of troubles to the British in their maritime trade. Kamati was arrested. He was tried before Governor Boone and his council.
There was no conclusive evidence whatsoever against Kamati but a round about gossip story by a witness. The witness who was one of Rama's servants was subjected to "cruel and inhuman torture" and evidence was fabricated with forged documents, even though the evidence itself was only hearsay evidence. One dancing girl had told the witness that the pirate chief Angare had told her that Kamati had written to him. That servant was tortured by cutting off his thumb to extract evidence and a statement implicating Kamati. A letter making it appear to have been written to Angare was also forged.
The Governor in Council drew the charge. His trial was held before an ad hoc tribunal, which was presided over by Governor Boone and consisted of members of the Council and Parker, the Chief Justice of the Court. During the trial, Parker objected to the torture of Kamati's servant, which was inflicted at the instance of Boone. The result of showing this judicial independence was his dismissal from office, by the Governor. Rama was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. His property was auctioned.. "The Governor himself falsely claimed a sum of Rs. 32,000 from Rama and thus shared the plunder". After Kamati's death, the truth was out that he was innocent.
-Cited in various books. One, The Legal History of India by Kautilya
and
two, the Landmarks in Indian Legal and Constitutional History by V. D. Kulshreshta
Dear friends, what is required to be done in India is that the police force must be made autonomous body. There must be proportionate representation of all castes and religions in the Board that controls the police force. The transperancy in the functioning of the police must be monitored by the sub-committees of the Board at various levels. These committees cannot interfere in the independent functioning of the police force in a professional manner but will be able to check misuse of power as it is a body representing multi-interests. In short, it will not be like the RAW or the CBI or the IB which is dominated only by one group. The National Police Commission of the later 1970s had recommended depoliticisation of the Police force. But the persons wielding real power, i.e., the Brahmanical bureaucracy, sabotaged the report and its recommendations. Now also they talk of everything about terrrorism, except streamlining the police administrative system.
The result is that unless the conscience of the persons concerned is awakened, more from India would join the fraternity of such innocents who have been framed for the offences not actually committed by them, especially in the context of the administrators having armed themselves with the modern day Manusmriti called the POTA.Because, here in India, the prosecutors happen to be the actual conspirators. There had been no sincere attempt to nab the real culprits to understand the real plot and the facts.
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