It is a consistent pattern now. The terror accused in all major cases get acquitted after decades of trial in the higher courts. Today the Bombay High Court acquitted all 12 accused of all terror charges, 5 of whom were on death row and the remaining 7 were serving life sentences. They have all spent 17 years in jail without any bail or parole. Finally to be acquitted. It has raised several disturbing and serious questions. The first being the competence of our investigative agencies. Be it their professional skills or independence , they have failed to demonstrate either. The police force doesn’t get enough training for criminal investigation and their entire focus is on law and order. Time and again all police reform committees have recommended separation of both, but state governments are reluctant to let go of their biggest strength. Our polity has reduced us to a virtual police state. The high court has observed that the police has failed “utterly “ to prove any of its charges. It also called it a biased investigation.
The second is the sorry state of our judiciary. The trial took over 9 years and the judgement of 2015 convicted all of them, and the appeals were heard for 10 years and all of them were acquitted. Predictability is the cornerstone of judicial decisions. It’s similar in most terror cases, be it regular criminal cases or for that matter even bail applications the lower courts are simply incapable of taking independent decisions. Media, political and supervisory pressure have incapacitated them. Even after 19 years, this is far from any closure. Supreme Court, review and miscellaneous appeals, the process would carry on. The 189 victims who lost their lives, or these 12 accused and advocate shahid azmi, the defense counsel who was murdered in 2010, none of them have found any closure. The third issue is the consolation that the higher judiciary still has its place at least for criminal justice. Though bitter sweet, it is not a small assurance in today’s uncertain times. Suddenly the constitution and rights seem to have some meaning left in them. The serial blasts, were the worst of its kind, where 7 trains had blasts within 11 minutes during peak hours. It was definitely a conspiracy, but nothing could be proven. The accused have lost their prime years and they would receive no compensation. They can only be thankful to be spared the gallows. It seems to be a regular trope that immediately after any terror attack, local Muslim youth would be picked up by the police, and the media would announce that the case has been solved. No body cares about the credibility of the system and the state, being irretrievably damaged. The mass alienation such acts cause. The communal polarizing that ensues destroys the social fabric of the nation and undoes everything the constitution stands for. In stark contrast are the samjhauta express and Malegaon blast cases. The lower and higher judiciary are both concurrent in these, yet the accused are out on bail for almost 7 years now and have even had parliamentary stints.
Law enforcement and justice delivery both have turned dysfunctional
