Opinion - Editorials   

Justice done

THE CONVICTION OF Rabindra Kumar Pal — - better known by the assumed name of Dara Singh — and 12 others for the gruesome murder of the Australian missionary, Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons in Orissa, is indeed a cause for satisfaction. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to which the case was entrusted, deserves much credit. Staines and his two little boys, Phillip and Timothy, perished after the jeep in which they spent the night of January 22, 1999, was set on fire. This grisly act, described by President K.R. Narayanan as belonging to the "world's inventory of black deeds," was a challenge posed to the administration as much as to civil society. The sequence of events in the few months after the murder caused some apprehension over the course of the investigation. A team of Central Ministers visited Manoharpur soon after the killings and held that there was an international conspiracy behind the killings. This was after the local police had named Dara Singh as an accused in the crime. He was well known in the region. His name figured in police records; he was engaged in campaigns, sometimes violent, for cow protection and the prevention of religious conversions. The remarks by the Central Ministers were widely interpreted as an attempt to scuttle the investigation. To make matters worse, Dara Singh was arrested only in February 2000, more than a year after the crime. That the CBI, to which the case was handed over at a later stage, could present legally sustainable evidence against 13 of the 14 persons accused of the murder is a real feather in its cap.

The Staines murder had another implication. It appeared that the murderous attack was very much part of a vicious sectarian campaign against missionaries on the same lines witnessed in parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with a large tribal population. While the Enquiry Commission headed by a Supreme Court Judge, Justice D.P. Wadhwa, did not find evidence to establish any links between Dara Singh and the Bajrang Dal, the police records in Keonjhar told a different story. D.R. Karthikeyan, in his capacity as Director General of the National Human Rights Commission, held that Dara Singh was a "sympathiser" of the Bajrang Dal. Further, an investigation team appointed by the Wadhwa Commission found that Dara Singh was "an activist/supporter of the Bajrang Dal;'' it added, however, that there was no "documentary evidence to prove that he [was] a member or office-bearer." For all the evidence, the Commission absolved the Bajrang Dal of any role in the killings. All this seemed to inject partisan politics into the investigation and prosecution of the brutal crime.

The killing of Graham Staines and his two boys by religious fanatics became an international issue, adversely affecting India's secular and democratic image. Questions were raised about the establishment's commitment to the rule of law. The Manoharpur killings were not an isolated incident. There were subsequent incidents of targeted violence in other villages in the region. All this produced a sense of insecurity among missionaries and the people who went along with them in the tribal tracts of Orissa. In the wake of the tragedy, the resilience shown by Gladys Staines was heroic and wonderful. She took up the work of her husband among poor tribal folk afflicted with leprosy. She repeatedly said she had forgiven the murderers of her husband and their two boys, demonstrating a nobility of spirit and constructiveness that was her own principled answer to the politics of hate. The CBI's labours, resulting in the trial court convictions, have helped refurbish the image of India as a land of justice.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• The Hurriyat meltdown
• Justice done
• The fast breeder reactor
• Show of strength
• Legitimising violence?
• Vindicated
• End of the tunnel
• Banking turnaround
• Befitting your stature
• Acknowledgement

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu