Kiya mere ye golikezakhmoonkenishanzindasubootnahi hain?Inheydikhaneykebawajoodbhi judge sbsubootmangteyrahe.”(Do my gunshot wounds not sufficient as living proof, despite showing my body injuries’ mark, the judge kept asking for evidence?)
This was immediate reaction of 60-year-oldVakil Ahmed after the Meerut district court on the alibi of want of evidence set free all 41 men accused, including PAC personnel,who were involvedin the coldbloodedmassacre of 72 Muslims inMaliana on 23 May 1987.
Vakil Ahmed is a key witness and survivor of the Maliana massacre.
In a similar vein, Ismail Khan, another survivor, claimed that the judge had denied him a hearing despite the fact that the massacre had claimed the lives of 11 members of his family.
“I believe there was enough evidence to punish the culprits.When Maliana was burning, the whole world saw the smoke. Why didn’t the court see this? Asked advocate Ahmad Siddiqui,who was among the few eyewitnesses called to testify.
He says, “I testified for a year. I told about the role of PAC, identified the people and also identified the weapons they had brought.”
The victims and their families in Maliana village, which is located on the outskirts of Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh, are in utter anguish as a result of the court’s decision in this case, which took 36 torturousyears and 800 sessions.
In the judgment passed on 31March, Additional District and Sessions Judge Lakhvinder Singh Sood highlights the “lack of sufficient evidence…to convict the accused” as the reason of setting free the accused.
Local Hindus and members of the state’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) – known for its anti-Muslim bias – were accused of carrying out the killing together.The coldblooded carnage was termed as a “blot on Indian democracy”.
The 26-page court decision in the Maliana case contains heart-breaking details of the violence – a young man died after being shot in the throat. A five-year-old was tossed into the fire while a father was chopped to pieces with a sword. The victims and their families have been horrified by the verdict of the court to acquit the accused despite such horrific acts of violence.Despite this setback, they vowed to continue their legal battle.
“There is despair among the people of my community in Maliana,” said Advocate Ahmed Siddiqui, who has two bullet marks on his body.He told to Radiance, “I know everyone who was slain and everyone who killed.”
Tears come to his eyes whenever he thinks about May 23, 1987, said Siddiqui.
While Vakil Ahmad, who runs a tailoring shop, recalled one of the court hearings, saying he showed his wounds marks to the judge.
“What more evidence do I have? Are my gunshot wounds and the injury report insufficient evidence to establish what occurred that day?” He asked while speaking to Radiance.
“And now they’ve discharged the accused persons, claiming there was no proof. Then, who am I?” he asks.
Their case had been undermined at every turn by shoddy investigations and inquiry committees, governmental indifference, and collusion.
Recalling the fateful day,the survivorIsmail Khan, 63, said hewas in Ghaziabad to hand out his younger brother Yunus’ wedding card when news broke out that his family had been murdered.
My home was broken into. My grandfather and parents were slaughtered and thrown into the well, I found out through the neighbours, Khan, who moved to Ghaziabad with his wife and two sons not long after the tragedy,told Radiance.
WHAT HAPPENED?
In May 1987, rioting broke out in Meerut, which served as the backdrop for the Maliana massacre. On May 17, mobs of Hindus and Muslims fought in Meerut City, purportedly in retaliation of the unlocking the doors of Babri Masjid in 1986. When a curfew was enforced in the city two days later, the state government dispatched 11 companies of the PAC to assist local police in maintaining order. The PAC allegedly switched to attacking Muslims throughout the district, according to the local media at the time and later, investigations by national media and non-governmental groups.
The survivors also recalled that over the years, Meerut has had numerous riots due to the volatile climate there. But we never anticipated that our hamlet would see bloodshed. However, PAC men arrived that day in three vehicles, and they surrounded Muslim-populated areas. All of our exits were blocked.
“Some PAC jawans entered the houses of Hindus and took positions on the roofs of their houses. They were raining bullets from all sides.”
PIL FOR JUSTICE
As the case was progressing at snail pace, senior journalist Qurban Ali and Vibhuti Narain Rai, an Indian Police Service officer and a former Director General of the Uttar Pradesh Police, moved Allahabad High Court and fileda public interest litigation for speedy trial.
As co-petitioners, the lawsuit was brought by lawyer M.A. Rashid and Ismail Khan, a Maliana massacre victim, who had lost 11 members of his family on May 23, 1987.
The PIL stated that more than three decades on the Maliana massacre case and other custodial killings in Meerut during the 1987 riots had not progressed much since key court papers, including the FIR, had mysteriously gone missing. It also accused the Uttar Pradesh police and PAC personnel of intimidating victims and witnesses into not deposing, and asked for either the release of the Srivastava Commission report or for the judges to request a copy of the report in a sealed cover.
It also pleaded for the establishment of a special investigation team to look into the events of 23 May, 1987, and conduct a fair and speedy trial, and sought adequate compensation for the families of the victims. In 2018, after 16 police personnel were convicted in the Hashimpura case, India’s biggest custodial killings case.The families of the 42 Muslims killed reportedly received Rs. 20 lakhs each as compensation because the killings had been carried out by the police.However, because Yaqub Ali’s FIR does not specify any police officers, the families of the Maliana victims received only Rs. 40,000 each.
After hearing the PIL, Justice Sanjay Yadav, the then Acting Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, and Justice Prakash Padia ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to file a counter-affidavit. “Taking into consideration the grievance raised in the petition and the relief sought, we call upon the State to file the counter affidavit and para-wise reply to the writ petition,” the order said. After theMeerut court judgment, the petitioners feel that the state government may ask to close the case in the AllahabadHigh Court.
THE SHOCKING JUDGMENT
Before acquitting all 41 of the accused persons, Additional Sessions Judge Sood highlighted a number of “loopholes” in the prosecution’s case.
“The accused named in the FIR filed by the police was done after getting the voter list. It has been noted that few of the accused in the case had passed away before the incident,” the judgment reads.
The judge pointed out “inconsistencies” and “contradictions” in witness testimony, among other things, and emphasised that no comprehensible justification was offered for the “changes” in the statement made to the police and the court.
The accuser was not found to be in possession of the weapons specified by the witnesses, the judge remarked. Additionally, the judge stated that there was no evidence regarding the “specific role of any accused”.
After hearing the verdict, I was dumbfounded, said Alauddin Siddiqui, the attorney for the victim families.
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
Critics also termed the trial court’s acquittal as a ‘travesty of justice’
Reacting on the judgment,Vibhuti Narain Rai, who was DGP in Uttar Pradesh,“This is a case of complete failure of the state. All its stakeholders i.e. police, political leadership, biased media and now the judiciary also failed to provide justice to the victims.”
Former IPS officer also wrote a book on Hashimpura killing “Hashimpura 22 May: The Forgotten Story of India’s Biggest Custodial Killing”, pointing out the role of the army in the 1987 Meerut riots.
Rai said, “There have been disturbances in the investigation from the very beginning. The case was pending for three and a half decades. That’s why we filed a petition in the High Court for fresh investigation. We demanded proper trial and compensation to the victims of the riots.
Three words describe the recent judgment of the Meerut court on the Maliana massacre of May 23, 1987, in which 72 people – all Muslims – were killed. These three words are: “miscarriage of justice”, said Qurban Ali, who was also an eyewitness to many incidents.
Speaking with Radiance, he said 93 people were initially charged in the Maliana case. Only 40 accused remain for the 36 years following the massacre because 31 “could not be traced” and 23 of the accused died.
“As atrocious as the verdict is, however, the entire case has been a travesty of justice, right from the moment 36 years ago when the first information report (FIR) was filed,” he added.
Talking to Radiance,Alauddin Siddiqui pointed out that even the witnesses had not undergone thorough interrogation. Despite there being 35 witnesses in all, less than 10 eyewitnesses were cross-examined in the court.
“The verdict is a hasty conclusion made while the case was still in progress. The accused had not been questioned in accordance with Section 313 of the Criminal Code of Procedure (which gives the court the authority to question the accused to explain evidence introduced against him), nor had hearings on the 36 post-mortems taken place,”85-year-old Siddiqui said who has been fighting the cases as pro bono.
Additional district counsel Mohan said, “There were several reasons spelled out for the acquittal. First, the police had not conducted an identification parade of the accused. Secondly, the police had allegedly put 93 random names from the voter list; including those who had died years prior to the carnage. Then, no weapon was recovered from the site.”
INSTITUTIONAL BIAS AND IMPUNITY CULTURE
The PAC commandant R.D. Tripathi, who gave the order to fire in Maliana, was suspended, according to a May 29, 1987, announcement from the UP government. It’s interesting to note that Tripathi had also been accused of wrongdoing during the riots in Meerut in 1982.However, Tripathi was never fired, despite his role in the slaughter in Maliana. Instead, up until his retirement, he received promotion from the service.
Expressing his shock over the verdict, Wazir Ansari, former DIG Chhattisgarh Police, told Radiance that the depressing reality that minorities continue to be persecuted in India by state institutions has been reinforced by thisverdict in the Maliana Case. The institutions are obviously not upholding the values and principles of the Constitution.
The administration, investigating/prosecuting agencies, and even the court are becoming more insensitive and biased, which has prevented them from upholding and defending the legal and constitutional rights of Indian minorities. The image of a democratic, liberal, and secular India is being tarnished by this. (Findings of recent Democracy Report 2022 reaffirm this).
Ansari also referred to the recent judgments/orders/observations of lower courts as seen in the cases of Bilkis Bano, ZakiaJaffery, the Hijab row, refusal to stop demolitions etc., saying that these reflect that the courts are succumbing to the Hindutva influence, denying justice to religious minorities.
He also cautioned that these judicial actions can be further seen as instruments of the Right Wing BJP Government at the Union to continue their oppression against the minorities.
“This is further widening the community divide in the country. There is complicity of all administration and judicial system with political executive at the helms of affairs. The need of the hour is to sensitise the people about the “Indianness of the religious minorities”, former top cop observed.
The Meerut court verdict in Maliana massacre case has added another chapter to the annals ofinstitutional bias and institutional impunity.
Despite acquittal by the district court, it is heartening to note that the victims of Maliana massacre did not lose their patience and courage and they are ready tochallenge the verdict in the Allahabad High Court.