let justice be done

with 2006 drawing to a close, everybody especially the print and electronic media have started looking at the year with discussions like "tell us who was the best actor/actress", "what were the special events of 2006", "personality of the year" and the list goes on and on.. though i plan to write some of my favorite 2006 moments before the clock ticks to midnight of 31st dec, for the time being i will focus on one particular surprise of 2006 : judiciary verdicts. indian judicial system has seen a great turnaround this year and something which was condemned as being a puppet in the hands of few influentials and politicians, is finally being hailed for giving some hard hitting verdicts this year and that too in cases which were pending and whose files were tasting dust for many years now.
starting with the latest and the one that made me very happy, life sentence to manu sharma for a crime he committed more than 7.5 year back, killing model jessica lal when she refued to serve him drink after closing of the bar at a party (she was bartending only as part of some modeling assignment) by shooting her at point blank. i think this case will go down in the history of indian judiciary for so many twists and turns during the entire trial with so many eye witnesses turing hostile (shyan munshi for one surely got more media attention for his hostile act than his cameos in the movies like jhankar beats and ahishta ahista), the killers & his aides being acquitted by a lower court eary this year, first of its kind nation-wide campaign with people demanding justice for jessica by lightening candles (probably they got inspired by rang-de-basanti, though ndtv wants to take the honour by claiming that it was their "send-a-sms" campaign that first brought to light the injustice being done to jessica among the masses), the case being re-opened by delhi police and taken to high court, and finally manu sharma being convicted on bina ramani's (owner of the restaurant where the murder happened) testimony when many had given up hope because he was being defended by the top-notch lawyer ram jethmalani (after the verdict, he went on to say that police had forced bina ramani to testify against manu sharma, another one in the series of ludicrous statements he made to protect his client from the ultimate verdict). with manu sharma & his aides notably vikas yadav (chief accused in the nitish katara's murder) belonging to very influential families, manu sharma being a son of former rajya sabha member and also related to the ex-president dr. shankar dayal sharma, what the verdict does more than giving justice is reaffirming the faith of the masses in the judiciary. it's like what sam says to frodo (in lord of the rings - the two towers) that there is some good left in this world and it is worth fighting for. at the same time, the case has raised a very pertinent issue of witnesses turning hostile with bina ramani correctly pointing out that the eye witnesses need to be given police protection so that they don't get intimidated by the accused and thus prevent them from turning hostile. police is now starting an enquiry on many witnesses of the murder for giving false testimonies earlier in favor of the guilty but what was police doing when these witnesses might have been threatened by manu sharma & co. for changing their statements in the court. as in putting oneself in shyan munshi's shoes, he is all set to testify against the accused but he receives a threat call that his family will be killed if he does so, he will obviously be scared for his family and change his statement to protect them. so is it really justified to blame people like shyan munshi and put them to trial without knowing the actual circumstances which might have forced them to alter their testimonies. may be some more thought needs to be put into this by the police and judiciary so that delay in verdicts like this one can be avoided in future. for the time being, let's hope that "manu sharma suffers in jail" (a comment made by sabrina lal, sister of jessica lal), i agree with pankaj now that life sentence is better punishment than death (where you are hanged and die within a minute without suffering prolonged pain) for these crimes, we can be sadistic for people like manu sharma who (on being acquitted earlier) had planned a bare-foot walk to some himalayan temple in praise of god and now says "i deserved this".
for a change a couple of politicians also bore the grunt of the crimes they committed more than a decade back and as such would have even forgotten the acts in their day-to-day life. Shibu Soren, MP for JMM (that is jharkhand mukti morcha for you) and former union minister and CM of jhankhand was given life sentence for plotting the death of his private secretary who had come to know of the deal between Congress & JMM to save the goverment of Narasimha Roa in the no-confidence motion. it came as no surprise to many that soren fall ill at hearing the verdict and JMM called for observing a "black day" in protest of the verdict in ranchi (capital of jharkhand). they surely love their leader, whom they call "guruji" with all due respect for giving gyan on how to save falling governments, and will decice the heir to his vacant berth in parliament after discussing with him. in another verdict, former cricketer and outspoken commentrator Navjot Singh Sidhu who is also MP for BJP got 3 year sentence for causing the death of a patiala resident following a fight over car parking, thankfully he maintained his outspoken attitude and didn't feign any illness.
the important question now is can this trend continue in the coming years. we still have lots of politicians and influentials who have cases pending against them in the court. the case of nitish katara is another one just like that of jessica lal and has been marred with similar kind of delays with bharti yadav, sister of the prime accused vikas yadav, making very confusing testimonies and supposedly changing her statements time and again. pankaj is of the view that this came as a surprise for the politicians, they were busy fighting over topics like whether there should be a re-trial for afzal guru (who had earlier this year been given death sentence for conspiring in the parliament attack of 2001, another long delayed verdict which is now being questioned for its fairness as well by socialites like arundhati roy) and after realizing that judiciary is getting out of hands, they will come up with some new amendment etc. to cut down on the powers of judiciary in near future so that they can focus on their misdeeds without any worries. already we saw shri lalu prasad yadav (fame for his stint as railways minister has reached to harvard now after iima) and his beloved wife shrimati rabri devi getting "baa-izzat bari" in the disproportionate assets case with mr. lalu commenting afte the verdict that judiciary is like God to him. being the last in the series of verdicts this month, is this a signal of changing time with power & politics again getting a strong hold on justice. i hope this is not the case and our judiciary keeps nailing down the criminals in future with same fervour as it has displayed this year. and so after looking at the verdict on the accused of mumbai serial bomb blasts and jessica lal murder, i await the verdict on the accused of mumbai train blasts and nitish katara murder (thankfully though, the prime accused vikas yadav has already got 4 years for conspiring to destroy evidence in the jessica lal case).