I believe that we, as in those who
live in Bharat/India are a very bloodthirsty lot. Not only bloodthirsty and
seeking “faansi”, but vengeful in the extreme, and when capital
punishment or “faansi” is somehow not possible, the accused should be
immediately clapped into prison, never to be released.
I am sure you will remember the hullabaloo
and baying for blood of Sunil Kulkarni. You should first read my post on on this subject here. For those of you lazy creatures who could not be bothered
clicking the link, here is a synopsis. Mr. Sunil Kulkarni has started what has
hysterically been called a `cult’ – Shifu Sunkriti. Two girls aged 21 and 23
fell into his thrall. To cut a long story short, following complaints by the
parents, and much hand wringing by the Bombay High Court, Mr. Kulkarni was
arrested in April 2017. No charges have been framed. Now the Hon’ble Bombay
High Court has asked the Police to investigate if the two girls were raped!!!
The girls have never complained of rape. On the contrary they consented to
being with Mr. Kulkarni. How could rape possibly be in the equation? Meanwhile Mr.
Kulkarni languishes in jail. I still believe he was a mini Hugh Hefner –
playing out a male fantasy surrounded by nubile nymphets.
There are numerous examples of people
being jailed for disproportionately long periods. Presently, builders are at
the receiving end. You have the corrupt Jaypee Group being hauled over the
coals in Delhi for not constructing flats they sold. The story of Pujit
Aggarwal of Orbit Constructions in Mumbai who was jailed for 10 months before
being granted bail is another. Jitendra Jain of Kamla Landmarc is also in jail.
Of course we know of the sad and in my view unjustified incarceration of
Subroto Roy. In all these cases, the crime is basically monetary. Money taken
and goods not delivered. While ultimately a jail sentence may well be called
for, a more pragmatic approach to free up assets and repay money could and
should have been followed. But no, we are bloodthirsty and vengeful.
Take, on the other hand, the real
crime of driving while drunk and killing several people. Does the name Janhavi Gadkar
ring a bell? She killed a few people. Was in jail for a few days but was
released on bail. The damage done by her cannot be worked out or settled by
doing some financial machinations. She killed people for God’s sake. So, my
point is, if you want to be bloodthirsty and vengeful please do select your
targets correctly. Why keep builders in jail for months and drunk drivers who
kill for days?
This brings me to the main issue.
First, a simple concept in law.
Organizations – companies, trusts, societies – do commit crimes. However, the
organization cannot be jailed. The organization can be fined but, as I have
written earlier, not jailed. So, the law has provided in its infinite wisdom,
that when an organization is guilty of a crime, its directors, officers in
default, trustees and committee are to be punished by either fining them or
putting them in jail. The directors, officers in default, trustees and
committee members are not directly liable as they have not committed the crime
themselves. They are guilty vicariously. To give you an example. A 150 year old
banyan tree is cut down without permission in a factory by a gardener using a
chainsaw. The authorities will prosecute the company, the gardener, the factory
manager and the directors. Except the gardener, no other person cut the tree,
and possibly were not anywhere on premises. You can see that except the
gardener no one participated in the crime of tree cutting, but, in law they are
guilty vicariously.
I hope that you have got the concept
firmly imbedded.
The case of Pradyumna Thakur a young 7
year old is tragic. Poor child went to school and had his throat slit,
allegedly by his school bus conductor in the school toilet. Our “middia”
were quick to say that not only was the child murdered but he had been sexually
molested.
On cue, the bus conductor was being
interviewed on national TV where he confessed or stated that he had indeed
killed the child. Now this in itself is shocking and breaks all norms of
criminal jurisprudence. After arrest, firstly to put the suspect on TV is
shocking. Is it just a crude attempt by our police to show how they have solved
the crime? Secondly, to ensure an impartial identification, the faces of
accused and suspects are kept hidden – which is why you see black hoods. Here
of course everyone was playing to the gallery. As was to be expected, with the
passage of time and involvement of all sorts of interested parties, the bus conductor
now claims innocence. To add fuel to the fire, the forensic report shows no
sexual assault. Is the “middia”
contrite? Perish the thought.
Fine, so you may ask, how does that
make us bloodthirsty or vengeful? Well, assuming the accused is guilty; clearly
the bus conductor killed the child. Is anyone baying for his blood? Nope. They
have already jailed the regional head of Ryan International School, one Francis
Thomas. In fact everyone and his cousin are baying for the blood of Ryan Pinto
the CEO of the school and Ryan’s parents. Augustine and Grace Pinto. They
really had nothing to do with the murder. They [probably excluding Thomas] were
not even on site or in the city. No doubt they are probably guilty vicariously
for failing to ensure as management that the school was adequately secure,
staff vetted and so on. But murder? Of course not. I do not believe that murder
can be committed vicariously. In this intense pressure I believe that even our
Courts are forgetting the meaning and ambit of vicarious liability. There is a concerted
effort by the Courts to deny bail to the Pintos. Surely, the Pintos could be
protected from arrest on strict conditions that they should co-operate with the
police. After all, the police want to solve the crime not simply arrest people.
If the Pintos can be available for questioning why arrest them? Impound their
passports, issue lookout notices so that the Pintos do not flee.
The situation has become even more
dire. The Gurugram Bar Association has prevented any lawyer from representing
Thomas. I mean is he the murderer? The “middia” has conveniently ignored
the alleged actual murderer as he is certainly not newsworthy. The murder is
done and dusted. The hounding of Thomas and the Pintos is much more juicy for
the “middia”. And the “middia” can use their investigative skills
to show how the Pintos are a suspicious lot; money launderers, crony
capitalists and what have you. Frankly, as compared to the bus conductor, the
Pintos are much bigger fish. Who gives a damn that their liability is vicarious
and they are certainly not guilty of murder?
The “middia” and our attitude
towards the CBI is frankly hilarious. When any investigation is done by the CBI
against Bobby Vadhra the CBI is a caged parrot and an organ of the state being
used to harass. Now when there is a murder we want the CBI to do a “poori
jaanch” into the matter. Yes, in BJP ruled Haryana. Now the CBI is somehow
not the parrot? Look at the damage you are doing to the morale of the police.
Do you believe that under such provocation they will perform even a halfway decent
investigation? Or, is it that we know that the CBI is a brutal almost Nazi SS
type organization and they will hound, torture & harass the Pintos which is
really what we vengeful folks want in the first place.
If you read reports in the “middia”
or watch what passes as news on TV, every time there is a crime, the relatives
of the victim will, in the harsh glare of arc lights, accompanied by chest
beating, howls of despair and anguish, not forget ever to say that nothing less
than “faansi” will satisfy them and give them justice.
Why are we all so bloodthirsty? Why do
we always want “faansi”? Why do we want to jail people for the slightest
reason? What about all those oft repeated clichés – this is the land of Gandhi et
al?
