Veerappan Cases-I: Mass acquittals overshadow few convictions

By Mukund Padmanabhan

MYSORE, SEPT. 30. Only the defence lawyers broke into smiles as the Mysore Special Court Judge, Mr. Krishnappa, announced the string of acquittals in the so-called ``Veerappan associates'' cases. A couple of remanded women continued to sob well after they were absolved. The hands of some men remained folded in prayer, their brows creased with anxiety.

Defence lawyers contended this was a poignant illustration of their ignorance, poverty and, yes, innocence. Said Mr. Venugopal, who represented 44 of the accused: ``Many didn't know why they were accused and remanded. And they didn't realise when they were finally acquitted''.

The Special Court's judgment brought the curtains down on a clutch of cases which have been mired in controversy, plagued by delay and almost derailed by the Rajkumar kidnap. Fourteen were convicted, seven sentenced to life imprisonment. More significantly, a staggering 109 of a total of 123 accused were totally acquitted.

The scenes of joy at the Mysore Central prison as 44 of 52 detenus were released was tempered with a sprinkling of apprehension. Ms. Selvi, whose husband was killed in an encounter, wondered where she would and what she could return to. Her mother, her sister and her sister-in-law - all widowed in the STF's operation against Veerappan and all remanded in prison since 1994 - shared the same anxiety.

There was also the feeling that for those released justice delayed was justice denied. Most of the 38 detenus who were acquitted had spent over seven years in jail. Six others released were sentenced for five years under the TADA but had already spent more than this period as undertrials.

For many of those following the torturous progress of the trial, the large numbers of acquittals was evidence that the STF had resorted to indiscriminate arrests and detentions. Much of them took place between seven and eight years ago, when the task force was under tremendous pressure to do something in response to the string of murders committed by Veerappan and his gang.

The 123 in question were charged in four main cases: the killing of the Superintendent of Police, Harikrishna, the attack on Ramapura police station, the M.M. Hills case and the Palar bomb blast case. Of them, 71 were released on bail in 1996 on the grounds that their involvement in the crimes was relatively indirect.

The Special Court's judgments lend some credence to the view that the mass arrests - including those of a dozen women - were aimed largely at demoralising Veerappan or teaching the gang a lesson. At one place, the court observed that eyewitness estimates of the number of gang members (60 to 70) were far less than the number of those accused. It noted that the number of accused was ``blown up to a maximum extent'' when compared to the number of accused that the complainant itself had observed at the scene of the crime.

At another place, the court observed that if the figures provided by the prosecution were considered, the number of gang members ``goes beyond 150 members''. It concluded: ``Therefore, how this figure is arrived at is a mystery''.

The judge also made a distinction between the women accused and their male counterparts, portraying the latter as helpless pawns in a male-dominated social order. In one of the judgments, he recorded that ``it is manifest that these women accused, having had no discretion and alternative, had to obey their husband and father so with them allegedly joined the gang of A1 (Veerappan)''.

Also, that while it was some of the other male gang members which used to work on the strategies used in the crimes, the women members were used largely to prepare food and had not participated in attacking the police at any time.

But the principal reason why the cases resulted in so many acquittals was the view the court took of the confessional statements of the accused. In more than one place, it expressed unhappiness over the manner in which they were recorded and noted the lack of corroborative evidence to support them. This formed what was arguably the main basis for almost 90 per cent of those charged with terrorist activity to be exonerated.

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