(Dr KhushalChand Baheti)
Koppal: A total of 98 persons of 111 persons who were convicted under the Prevention of Atrocities against SC ST Act in Koppal district of Karnataka were awarded life imprisonment, recently. A special court a Koppal delivered the verdict.
In August 2014, there was assault on some persons in a cinema theatre. The reason was a dispute while purchasing cinema tickets. The injured suspected that the assault was made at the instance of a person who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community of Madigas. The followers of the injured in cinema theatre entered the colony of Madigas community. They assaulted the community members and also set their houses on fire.
A total of 117 people were charged in the case. They were booked under Section 3(1)(x) (insult) 3(1)(xi) (outrage modesty 3(2)(iv) (mischief by fire to residence of SC/ST).
The court examined more than 40 witnesses of which all barring 3 supported the prosecution case. The court sentenced 98 accused to life imprisonment. The six were sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment. Eleven accused died and two were juveniles.
Special Judge C Chandra Sekhar observed that
“To show mercy in a case like this would be travesty of justice.”
The court began its order by quoting African American singer Marian Anderson, “No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people. As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.”
BOX:
Earlier in 2021, the Supreme Court had expressed concern on the low conviction rate of Atrocities Act due to shoddy investigations and the negligence of prosecuting advocates.
Atrocity Act cases registered on complaint of SCs
2019 - 45,961
2020 - 50,291(216 resulted in convictions. 3,192 cases acquitted)
Atrocity Act cases registered on complaint of STs
2019 - 7,570
2020 - 8,272.
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar recorded the highest rate of crimes against SCs. Kerala, Rajasthan and Telangana recorded the highest rate of crimes against STs.