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Meher Bhargava case: Civil society flexes its muscles

Yes, it is happening. In Delhi, in Mumbai and even in Lucknow, the middle class is stirring from its comfortable perches to ask for justice. And, it’s not just empty rants. This time they are pushing for results.

JIVITHA CRASTA

A 50-year-old woman was shot on the street for objecting to her daughter-in-law being eve teased. This happened barely 100 meters away from the Police Superintendent’s office in Lucknow. Of the four accused, two are arrested and two are absconding. The killer on the run has political links with the ruling party. So far it sounds like the typical story. Rich brat bumps off someone, then hightails it, merrily tampers with evidence, aided and abetted by the police. So on and so forth.

But what is different this time is the overwhelming and systematic civil reaction to the crime. People of Lucknow take to the streets in a candlelight protest. The Lucknow High Court and other courts in the city remain shut for a day in protest. The media relentlessly reports on every development in the case. This is not empty outrage but a demand for accountability. Of significance is the fact that the judiciary is also protesting. It’s high time they did. The judicial system is a mess with the shortage of judges and cases coming to trials after years. Naturally, the chances of a conviction are very low because so much time elapses between the crime and the trial.

The results of these protests are startling. The voluble public outrage has forced the investigations to be sharper. Two sub-inspectors have been suspended for negligence. After the protests, KD Singh of the Samajwadi Party was arrested for harbouring the accused. He was out on bail yesterday, though. Lucknow IG, OP Tripathi, was asked by the DGP Yashpal Singh to trace the reason behind police failure to nab the criminals. Here’s what he found:

The police did not record Bhargava’s statement, which would have been a dying declaration. A dying declaration we all know is a crucial bit of evidence in the trial.

The police did not bother to raid the flat in Dallipur Tower where the accused were residing. Had they done that, they may have got crucial leads about the whereabouts of the accused.

The police took a fortnight to apply for Sachin Pahari’s non-bailable warrant.

All of these will weaken the case when it comes to trial. But the good thing is that unlike in the Jessica Lal case, where the ghastly state of evidence and the poor investigation was questioned after the trial, in this case the issues have come up much before the trial. Although the slipshod investigation so far may have weakened the case substantially, still there is hope for corrective measures to be taken. At least, there is pressure on the Lucknow police to perform now.

Then there is the Jessica Lal case in Delhi and the Kasliwal case in Mumbai. Again, the accused were highly connected. In the first case, the accused had shot a girl in full public view and run. Later he turned himself in and admitted to the murder. The case looked watertight. But, the trial dragged on for seven years, during which time evidence was tampered with, witnesses turned hostile, and the accused were acquitted. 

Despite the botching of evidence and the acquittal of the accused, public outrage forced the police to open the case again. They filed a petition challenging the acquittal of the nine accused. An Indian court ordered a retrial. A Division Bench restrained the acquitted persons from leaving the country till further orders and asked them, including Manu Sharma, to appear before the court on April 18.

This has had a direct bearing on another high-profile case. The federal Central Bureau of Investigation sought a legal opinion to ensure an early hearing of the 1996 rape and murder of New Delhi college student Priyadarshani Mattoo. There is now some hope that this unsolved case will reach closure.

In the Kasliwal case, public outrage and the media hunt forced the police to handle the investigations carefully. Of course, there were others who argued that Kasliwal was being tried by the media and that he deserved a fair trial. But we are not talking of a fair system here. A fair trial is all very well if you have unbiased, professional investigations and the rest of the razzmatazz. 

The other interesting thing about this case was the number of people who came forward to testify. Another victim of Kasliwal came forward. A sessions court in Mumbai rejected Kasliwal’s bail application. Judge DD Joshi agreed with the prosecution that the accused was influential and was likely to tamper with evidence.

All of these might not look very substantive but we must agree it’s a small step in the right direction. For once, the middle class seems to be breaking out of its customary apathy. They can also see the direct effects of their protests. They are blogging, sending SMSes, taking to the streets. They can see the issues not dying out like they usually do. They have tasted power. The media has kept up the tempo and the people are pursuing it with terrier-like tenacity. Why is the middle class reacting so strongly? For one, there is the extensive coverage in a large number of newspapers, magazines, and TV channels. The other reason could be that the middle class is economically more comfortable than ever before. They are not in survival mode any more. That itself means that they have the time and energy to think about social issues. Also, with economic power comes the desire for social and political power. They have seen the result of their indignation. They can see that it works and they want more.

So far, the rich and the famous have got away with anything. And what follows is some outrage and anger at the injustice of it all. Pretty soon it peters out. But this time round, in three cases, the middle class is putting the right kind of pressure on the authorities. This time round they are being smart. They are asking for repeat investigations. They are not asking for mere retrials. 

What we now need to do is to ask for major changes. We need to seriously create a witness protection program. Checks and balances have to be devised to prevent those witnesses who have been bribed to turn hostile. 

We should also question why firearms are so easily available. It's time the law made it difficult for people to possess firearms.

There is of course the issue that the Jessica Lal and the Meher Bhargava cases have received so much of coverage because the victims were high-profile individuals. Jessica was a model and Meher, a prominent socialite in Lucknow, was the wife of Congress leader Luv Bhargava. What the media needs to do is ensure that cases involving little-known individuals also receive the same coverage.

And there is one other thing that the media can do. For one, all of these well-connected people should be dropped from Page 3. They should not be given social sanction. We can all ensure that these well-heeled, well-connected murderers are not treated normally. Because, the reason why many of these murderers feel confident enough to commit the crime is not only the fact that they can get away with it but also that they know that nothing will change in the way people react to them. It will be business as usual. We can and need to withdraw that social sanction. And there, perhaps, there will be justice for one and all.