In the infamous Kannagi Murugesan Honour Killing case, a caste Hindu girl Kannagi and her Dalit / SC husband Murugesan were killed on 8th July, 2003 in a blood curdling manner for marrying out of her caste. The Special Court (or the Principal Sessions Court) Cuddalore district sentenced the brother of the girl to death sentence and awarded life imprisonment to her father and 9 other people. In an unusual manner, 2 senior police officers were also convicted by the trial court for life imprisonment for sec. 3(2)(1) and 4 of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The Madras High Court today, 8th June, 2022, commuted the Death Penalty imposed on the brother of deceased Kannagi and imposed Life Sentence. The HC Confirmed the conviction and life sentence imposed on her father and 7 other persons belonging to her same caste. 2 Convicted persons were acquitted.
Of the 2 police officers convicted by the trial court, the then SI of Police was acquitted of committing offences u/s 3(2)(1) of the SC/ST Act under which life sentence was imposed and sec. 218 IPC under which 3 years RI was imposed. However the conviction u/s 217 IPC of 2 years and conviction u/s 4 of the SC/ST Act (Police Officer is to be held guilty for not using the powers to register complaint) of 1 year were sustained.
The Conviction and life sentence on the 2nd police officer, the senior of the 2 officials ho was a DySP at the time of his retirement, were sustained.
This judgment is a very important victory for Dalit justice and rule of law.
Police officials are seldom punished for mistreating Dalits. The confirmation of conviction u/s 3(2)(1) and life imprisonment awarded to the DySP is perhaps for the first time in India, or amongst the few instances known. Conviction u/s 4 SC/ST Act is also unknown. SO in that sense it is a major steo forward to ensure justice for victims of honour killing.
I had appeared for the family of Murugesan, the Dalit person killed for daring to marry a caste Hindu girl. After consulting with the family of the deceased Murugesan, I informed the court that the family had instructed me that they were not pressing for confirmation of the death sentence and would be satisfied with confirmation of conviction and award of life sentence.
I was actually very humbled by the response of the father of Murugesan, a landless Dalit person economically very poor when I asked him about the death sentence. He spontaneously responded in very rustic Tamil, "Ayya, (respectful address, in Tamil) I have lost my son and daughter in law to the most brutal killing arising from caste poison and hatred; they are not going to come alive because the killers are going to be hanged. I can imagine the pain of the family whose member will be hanged because of the death sentence. Let them not suffer that pain of permanent departure. The person and his family have already paid the price because of conviction and imprisonment. I don't want more blood to be spilt".
I wonder, how many of us will have this generosity of spirit !!
At the risk of sounding prescriptive, there are a number of very progressive provisions in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which are very useful to get social justice. But they are not known to many lawyers, let alone other human rights activists.
We, in the PUCL should organise a series of workshops to educate our members and activists of other movements on the unique provisions of the SC/ST (POA) Act and on how to access the various protections given in this law to protect, promote and defend the rights of Dalits and tribals. For example the provision of state giving compensation on the filing of a FIR under the law, in instalments from the time of filing FIR, Final Report/ Charge Sheet, Trial and judgment is UNIQUE as compensation is delinked from the trial court judgment; this is in recognition that trials are not in the hands of victims and so they need to get compensation at the beginning itself.
The POA Act also has provisions for appointment of lawyers of choice of the victims. There are other very unique provisions also.
Suresh, PUCL.