Quirky Justice

Image Courtesy:istockphoto.com

The judiciary in India is an interesting institution- it is believed to be an independent body busy in dispensing “justice” to all those who seek fair play. However, if you make even a sketchy comparison between the two high profile prisoners- Dr. Binayak Sen and Mr. Manu Sharma- you will realize that this institution is as murky  as a tank full of squids spewing ink. Allow me to draw your attention towards the treatment meted out to these persons by our esteemed courts and in the bizarre ways in which the entire mechanism of our judicial system works.


Commonality in the cases of Manu Sharma and Dr. Binayak Sen:
 1) Both were awarded life imprisonment and are serving term.
2) Ram Jethmalani has represented Manu Sharma previously and wants to represent Binayak Sen in future.

Mr. Manu Sharma: (born 1977)
•    Son of veteran Congress leader and ex minister of Haryana.
•    An undergraduate who shot Jessica Lall point blank in a celebrity party in April 1999.
•    Real name is Siddharth Vashisht then aged 22 carried firearms quite freely.
•    He was notorious as a pub hopper and a party creature in Delhi’s high flying social circles.
•    This act of (what I can only term as) manslaughter was committed in the full view of 90 odd guests present at the party.
•    Managed to get anticipatory bail and went into hiding to evade being caught.
•     There were some witnesses who later turned hostile- Shayan Munshi being one of them- and many others who feigned ignorance due to various reasons.
•    There was an audio tape with a confession from the accused (evidence recorded during interrogation) which conveniently went missing.
•    The killing happened in April 1999 and the conviction came in December 2006.
•    Manu Sharma was given parole on September 24 2009 for fraudulent reasons.
•    Senior lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, appeared on behalf of Manu Sharma and failed to get him acquitted.

Dr. Binayak Sen: (born 1950)
•    Paediatrician, public health practitioner and activist.
•    Actively involved in dispensing free medical consultation and service to the tribal people of Chhattisgarh.
•    He was awarded the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights in 2008.
•    Sen was arrested on May 14 2007 on charges of “having links with the Naxals” because he made 33 visits to veteran Naxal leader Narayan Sanyal in jail in Raipur. Point to remember here is that each visit in question was supervised by police officers.
•    He was refused bail on grounds of being a threat to the state.

Need I say more?

Dr. Binayak Sen is a “threat to the State” but Manu Sharma, gun totting rowdy with criminal links with politicians in Haryana and Delhi is a picture of rectitude for who it took the same judiciary seven years of toil to build a case. Manu Sharma is freed on parole by none other than the CM of Delhi, Ms. Sheila Dixit and Binayak Sen cannot be given bail for being a threat to the state!

How much more crap are we supposed to take from this corrupt, ineffectual and innocuous government?  How removed from reality can our so called leaders be? Do we deserve to be insulted so and be taken for fools by a bunch of thieving, bribing, amoral politicians? Alas, as the saying goes “you deserve what you get” for are we not the ones who voted these same people to power? It is time for us to don the thinking cap and keep our ears and eyes open and learn to discern right from wrong and what we must take and what we must not.