New Delhi: Upset over some Mirchpur village
(in Haryana) Dalits' reluctance to return home after last
year's killings of a man and his daughter, a Delhi court has
said their lack of trust in law enforcing agencies was not
proper.
"I need not remind the victims that every inch of this
country belongs to all of us and there is no reason why the
victims have a trust deficit in the law enforcement agency and
justice delivery system.
"They have refused to return to their village where they
have their roots and that too when all necessary steps as
contemplated and required have been taken to protect and
reassure them," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said.
Nudging the victims of the attack on Dalits of Mirchpur
to return home, the judge said the court had already issued
directions to the authorities regarding their protection
arrangements and it is being supervised from time to time.
Noting that after its earlier order, many of the victims
and their families have returned to the village, the court was
upset over some of the victims' reluctance to return home.
"I find no palpable reason why others have chosen to
stay away and reside at some private farm house," it said.
The court also pointed out that "the onus of of ensuring
that the guilty persons are taken to task is not entirely upon
the state but equally upon the victims and without their
assistance, it would not be possible."
The court, meanwhile, decided the applications filed
by witnesses regarding the payment of expenses and
arrangements to be made for them at the time of examination.
"The expenses for the victim or witnesses protection
arrangement in Haryana shall be borne by Haryana government.
"However, if the situation arises where the victims or
witnesses are required to stay in Delhi pursuant to the
directions of the court, then under these circumstances the
additional protection and expenditure for the same shall be
borne by Delhi government," it said.
The court also directed that the responsibility of
boarding, lodging, food, medical facilities in Delhi would be
that of Delhi government.
The court had earlier framed charges against 98 upper
caste men for their alleged roles in burning alive a
70-year-old Dalit man and his teenaged daughter at Mirchpur
village in Hissar district on April 21 last year.
The court had framed charges terming dominant Jat
community as "aggressor" and Dalits as "sufferers" in the
April 2010 killings.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed that the case
relating to the killing of the father-daughter duo by a mob of
over 100 upper caste people be transferred to the special
court here to ensure a free and fair trial.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 22:54