SUNDAY
SENTIMENT
Law and Justice with Many Manifestations
The last
week was witness to two new and different manifestations of law and justice.
The
Supreme Court of India restrained the Gujarat Police from arresting till
February 19 the controversial human rights activists Ms Teesta Setalvad and her
husband against whom cases of embezzlement and cheating have been registered.
Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had
rejected the
anticipatory bail plea of Teesta and her husband Javed Anand, observing that
"they cannot be armoured with full-fledged anticipatory bail when the
applicant did not cooperate with the investigation". The court referred to
"shocking facts" about the misuse of funds for "personal"
benefit.
Some human rights
activists are taking the plea that the case against Ms Setalvad is motivated by
the Gujarat Police for her active involvement in helping the Gujarat riot
victims to seek justice. It is true that she had filed many cases against the
government.
In fact, just as there
is a motive behind every murder and other crimes, there is also a motive behind
a case against any individual or party. While the impulse for a crime can be
the desire to seek revenge or financial and property benefit, the desire for
filing a case against a person or group can be to seek justice. So no case can be
wished away or thrown out just because the accuser has some enmity or grouse
against the person complained against. Murders take place because of some
enmity. Even in the case of a rape, the accused can take the plea that the
complainant had some grouse against him. But that cannot prevent either the
police from investigating the case or the trial court from hearing it. The
investigating agency and the trial court have to go by the record, evidence and
arguments against the person accused and declare its verdict.
The Teesta case has
also raised a very vital question of equality of every citizen before law. Can
we say that our courts are similarly condescending towards all the persons who
are facing similar charges as does Teesta?
Those interested to go
further into Teesta Setalvad case can read "The Truth About Teesta"
published by Prabhat Prakashan, New Delhi. Its e-book edition has been published
by Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google.
Deccan Chronicle chief
arrested
On February 14 the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) arrested T Venkattram Reddy, chairman of Deccan Chronicle
Holdings Ltd (DCHL), on charges of loan
fraud.
Subrata Roy (Sahara)
case
It is not out of
context to recall that the Supreme Court of India has put Sahara group chairman
Subrata Roy in Delhi's Tihar Jail for failing to return the hundreds of crores
of money he raised from investors. All his pleas for being released on bail
have been rejected. He is now struggling to sell his properties to raise money
so that he can refund investors' money and get out of jail. He is in jail for
the last about one year.
These are the three manifestations of the stark
reality our law and justice. Let readers draw their own judgement.
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