By IANS,
Nagpur : Even as Republican Party of India president Ramdas Athavale has hailed the “historic” judgment in the Khairlanji dalit carnage, his rival Bharatiya Republican Party-Bahujan Maha Sangh president Prakash Ambedkar has bemoaned the dropping of “conspiracy” and “atrocity” charges by the prosecution.
Expressing satisfaction about the judgement of the Bhandara trial court in Maharashtra, Athavale told IANS: “It will restore the faith of dalits in
judiciary and deter the uppity sections of the society from perpetrating atrocities against Scheduled Caste people with impunity.”
The court Monday convicted eight of the eleven accused for killing four members of Bhotmange family two years ago.
“I would have been happier if all the eleven accused had been held guilty but it is gratifying nevertheless that a vast majority of them are going to be punished”, Athavale said about the verdict in the Sep 29, 2006 killing of the wife and three young children of Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, a dalit farmer in Khairlanji village of eastern Vidarbha, by a frenzied mob of caste Hindus.
Ambedkar, on the other hand, decried the omission of the “conspiracy” charge and the non-application of Atrocities Act provisions by the trial court judge S.S. Dass though “involvement of both the crimes was apparent” in the mob attack.
“The omissions are ominous and I am afraid the punishment (to be announced Sep 20) would be relatively mild,” Ambedkar told IANS, adding that he would urge the state government to appeal for inclusion of the vital charges.
On being told about the court’s opinion that the mob attack did not attract the provisions of Atrocities Act, Athavale said he would respect the judgment though he differed with the judge on that count.
“I am convinced that the mob attack on the Bhotmange household was motivated as much by the feeling of caste animosity as by that of revenge (against Bhaiyalal’s wife Surekha and daughter Priyanka for testifying against some of the attackers in an earlier case of beating up of their kin Siddharth Gajbhiye). But I respect the superior wisdom of the honourable court”, Athavale said.
The RPI president, however, made out a strong case for strengthening the provisions of the Atrocities Act, diluted by a Supreme Court ruling that anticipatory bail could be granted to the accused held under the act.