Beyond the Rajkumar hostage crisis

By Mukund Padmanabhan

MYSORE, DEC. 23. Active players in Veerappan's murderous gang? Or poor villagers coopted to do his bidding out of fear and a concern for self-preservation? Portrayals of the 51 Veerappan TADA detenus vary dramatically and perplexingly. The truth, as usual, is shaded in grey - somewhere between the uniformly black characterisation which the police put out and the sanitised lily- white picture human rights activists tend to paint.

Going by the information in the chargesheets, it would seem reasonable to conclude that at least a dozen of the 51 detenus were members of the gang, active and armed. Whether they are guilty or innocent of the specific crimes they are charged with is another matter. But to portray men such as Simon, Bilavendran, Munisamy, Kaliappa and Meesakaran Madaiah as gullible, frightened and blameless villagers is to be blind to the facts.

Caste links

But what about the others? Here, the pattern of the arrests lends credence to the version of the human rights activists. Twelve of the 51 are women and of them 10 are widows - once wives of gang members. (``Can't catch the gang? Arrest their wives,'' scoffs a local journalist.) Most of the detenus are Padayachi Gounders (Veerappan's caste grouping) and many are bound by a network of family ties, facts which support the view that the arrests could have been directed largely at demoralising Veerappan or teaching the gang a lesson.

Such questions may never have arisen, or at least assumed the significance they have, if the detenus were provided with a quick trial. The chargesheets in the four TADA cases were filed in 1994; quite remarkably, it wasn't until the end of 1999 that trial in three of the cases commenced.

The story of judicial delay is already well documented. Initially, the authorities themselves seemed quite unconcerned about speeding up the proceedings. ``The police may have felt that acquittal would provide a moral boost to Veerappan at a time when the hunt was on,'' says Mr. Venugopal, lawyer for 28 of the TADA accused.

The Karnataka Government contributed to the rest of the delay. A few years ago, the court had held that the existing venue was inconvenient to stage the trial and had sought an appropriate alternative. It took the Government two years to provide a suitable building.

Ironically, it took the Rajkumar hostage crisis to force the Karnataka Government to shift into the fast lane. A special judge, Mr. B. Krishnappa, has been appointed for the four TADA cases and, from all appearances, he seems determined to dispose them as quickly as possible.

Day-to-day hearings are scheduled from January 6 and some lawyers believe that the cases will conclude, at the earliest, within six months. The Government has also appointed a special public prosecutor for the cases and the State's Home Minister, Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, is not exaggerating when he claims his Government has now done what it can to speed matters up.

What kind of position the Government will adopt vis-a- vis the cases will merit watching. After all, it was only recently that the Government submitted before the court that it had decided to withdraw the TADA cases and that there was ``little evidence'' to connect the accused to offences made out under other Acts. Would the prosecution then feel bound estoppel? Or will it try its best to secure convictions? There are no clear answers at the moment.

Hope for bail

Even as everything is set for a quick trial, the hope for bail has not been extinguished. Although the Supreme Court prevented them from getting bail, this was because it strongly opposed the proposed barter of detenus for Mr. Rajkumar. The court's judgment, in fact, provides a window of opportunity for the detenus to apply for bail ``independently''.

Now, Mr. Venugopal has moved the court on behalf of all the detenus and the hearing will come up shortly. It remains to be seen how it will hear the plea, now that it may be addressed on its own merit and detached from the issue of a blatantly illegal hostages-for-detenus swap.

The Rajkumar hostage crisis may have helped to focus attention on the plight of the detenus. But now that it is over, perhaps it is time to consider this matter both independently and expeditiously.

(Concluded)

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