Karnataka court convicts 101 people in decade-long atrocity case and sentences 98 of them to life imprisonment

A sessions court in Karnataka’s Koppal district on Thursday convicted 101 people in a decade-old case of atrocity against members of the Scheduled Caste community in Marakumbi village.

Special Judge C. Chandra Sekhar noticed,

“Showing mercy in such a case would be a travesty of justice. Considering the fact that the injured women and men belong to the Scheduled Caste and that the accused violated the modesty of the women and attacked the victims with sticks, stones and pieces of bricks, causing injuries, I am of the opinion that the accused deserve to be sentenced to a term longer than the prescribed minimum punishment.“

The Tribunal sentenced 98 of them to life imprisonment under Art. 3 section 2 letter iv) Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The remaining defendants were sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment.

According to the FIR filed in August 2014, the accused suspected that the attack on them while purchasing movie tickets was the fault of the complainant belonging to the Madigas caste community. As a result, the accused entered the Madigas community colony, abused and attacked its members, and set fire to their houses.

A total of 117 people were charged in the case. They were booked under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC/ST which deals with intentionally insulting or intimidating persons belonging to the SC/ST community. It is an aggravated form of crime as compared to Sections 504 and 506 of the IPC. They were also booked under Section 3(1)(xi) of the Act which deals with assault on any SC/ST woman with intent to outrage her modesty. It is an aggravated form of crime under Section 354 of the IPC. They were also charged under Art. 3 section 2 letter iv) which relates to the commission of an offense as a result of fire intended to destroy the place of residence of people belonging to the SC/ST. It is also an aggravated form of crime punishable under Section 436 of the IPC.

During the course of the case, 11 defendants died. Two of the accused were minors, so their cases were referred to the Juvenile Justice Commission.

The court began its order by quoting African-American singer Marian Anderson: “No matter how big a nation is, it is not stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you hold a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so that means you can’t rise as much as you could otherwise. for now.”

He noted the testimony of witnesses, mainly the injured, children and women, and noted that despite an almost three-year break in questioning, their testimony was consistent and corroborated by the remaining evidence in the hearing. It was written there: “Except for three injured witnesses who did not support the prosecution’s position, all the remaining 35 witnesses supported the prosecution’s position. There is no argument that the witnesses were trained. They all recounted their terrifying experiences on the day of the incident, although not uniformly, but consistently.“

The court also referred to the testimony of independent panch witnesses, doctors who interviewed witnesses and police officers and stated: “Confirms the atrocities inflicted on the people of SC colony in Marakumbi village. The defense presented nothing to indicate distrust or rejection of the testimony of the above witnesses.“

During sentencing, the defendants explained that not all of them had set fire to the huts. They also urged the court to take into account their humble origins as some of them were farmers, coolies and daily wage earners.

However, the Court stated that “Having regard to the facts and circumstances of this case, I find no mitigating or mitigating circumstances on the record that would justify the granting of any leniency.“

It cited Manjula Devi v. Onkarjit Singh Ahluwalia @ Omkarjeet Singh and others (2017) in which the Supreme Court observed that despite various measures aimed at improving the socio-economic conditions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, they remain vulnerable and are denied the right to human rights and beyond, are exposed to various crimes, humiliations, humiliations and harassment.

Case Title: State of Karnataka v. Manjunath and others

Case No.: SC (AC) No. 12/2015