The modern thinking Indian

It's been some time now since this case has been in court. Imagine the case where a couple is in love, being of the age when people usually fall in love. Now think about the case where the girl is from a prominent family, politically connected, and very very arrogant in their power. They have access to brute force, along with political connections, and in the past, have shown that they are very much capable of committing violence and not being the least bit concerned that there is such a thing such as law, order and justice. Further, the brother of the girl is a known bad element, with all the arrogance of power as comes from living in a setup where the exercise of power has been the case all through.
If some of you would have seen an Abhishek Bachchan movie called 'Run', it would have reminded you of the situation similar to this one; but in real life you cannot just fight your way through, and life is not a movie. This actually happened in real life, and finally led to the cutting short of a promising life on February 16, 2002 when Nitish Katara, the young man (24 at that time) was brutally killed by a hammer by Vikas Yadav (the brother) and Vishal Yadav (the cousin of the girl). They committed the murder, hid the evidence and burned the body.
In normal cases, given the police investigation conditions and the political power of the accused, the case would have ended. Except for the pressure mounted by a desperate mother who would go to any end in order to get the murderers of her son, a media that saw in these injustices (combined with the cases of Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo) as victimisation of the middle class by the connected, and a surge of interest in making sure that these cases do not go away. And now the end result is now visible:

NEW DELHI: The night before the verdict seemed longer than usual, though she had waited six long years for justice. The nervous wait was over in a matter of minutes, as the verdict was pronounced, taking a huge load off her shoulders. Neelam Katara stood vindicated on Wednesday, with the killers of her son Nitish finally proclaimed guilty.
Neelam lost her husband a year and a half after Nitish's death and her younger son Nitin was mostly out of town for studies and work. So for her, it was a lonely battle for justice, braving threats, financial constraints and occasional ill health. However, she laughs it off when called the "lone warrior". "I have had the support of family, friends and media all through. In fact, complete strangers have called me up and visited me, saying they were with me through all that was happening. I have never been alone," she smiles.

Of course, there is a long way to go. The case will wind its way to the High Court and the Supreme Court, with the good point being that the media will also be there to ensure that no injustice happens at these points. At the same time, this case also provides a lot of lost hope to people who may face similar crimes, but in the semi-urban or rural areas where such injustices can happen and there is no media or pressure to make sure that such cases get highlighted.

Labels: Court, Family, Investigation, Judicial, Law, Nitish Katara, Punishment

So Bharti Yadav has finally deposed in court. This has been a long struggle, and shows what the faith of a determined mother can do. The facts of the case are known to a lot of people, but a short recap should refresh matters for those who have not been following the case.

As per the prosecution, Nitish Katara had been very close to Bharti Yadav, the daughter of Ghaziabad's strongman, D. P. Yadav. This was not liked by his sons, and they eventually abducted the hapless Nitish from a marriage and killed him in 2002 in Ghaziabad. The issue around Bharti is that she was also there in the wedding and had stated that she last saw Nitish with her brothers. And given how good our police and prosecution is, this key witness was allowed to leave the country and go off to London. Ever since then, the case has been ongoing, but the absence of a key prosecution witness has prevented the case from reaching a logical conclusion.

For long, the mother of the victim, Neelam Katara has been fighting valiantly to keep the case alive and bring Bharti back to India for deposing in the case. For some interval in between, there was a move to drop her as a witness, but due to the doggedness of Neelam Katara, the focus has remained on getting her back to the country to depose. Bharti has tried various strategies to prevent her appearance, from her family feigning a lack of knowledge of her whereabouts to the external affairs ministry dragging their feet about making attempts to get her back.

It is only due to the efforts of the mother, and a very active judiciary that has been prodding the Government to take action against Bharti, including declaring her a proclaimed offender. And I would tend to believe that she is coming back only because she would have been declared a proclaimed offender; also, with her visa due to expire, and passport being revoked, she would have anyhow been deported back to India and been arrested. Coming here on her terms would have been a better deal.

To get Bharti declared as a proclaimed offender may seem like a very strange thing, given that she would have been affected by the murder of someone with whom she was close, she would also been under tremendous pressure from her family, and after all, she is not accused of any crime.

This is actually only half-true; in most modern judicial systems, helping in the passing of justice is seen as one of the primary responsibilities of a citizen. Evading this by either falsely giving evidence or trying to prevent giving evidence seems like actually helping in preventing justice from happening, and can actually be punished.

Now that she is here in India, we need to actually see whether she will take the side of justice, but it is equally likely that she would have buckled into pressure from her family and decided not to be truthful. If that being the case, then the prosecution has a responsibility to this society to not treat her lightly and ensure that they get the truth out of her. It can be argued that after all it was because of his proximity to her that a young guy had to lose his life.

This case also highlights a concern that comes out time and time again in various cases. The movement in this case is either because of the efforts by an individual (the victim's mother) or because the courts have pushed the case, something that we expect the prosecution and the police (with their almost infinite powers) to do but mostly never see. I wonder when this will change for the better.

Labels: India, Law, Nitish Katara