The voices from society in favour of an appeal against the order of acquittal of the accused in the infamous Deorala “Sati” case grew louder with many more activists and NGOs joining hands with the PUCL to raise the issue.

The order was passed on Wednesday by the Additional District Judge No: 4, – designated as a special court under the Commission of Sati Prevention Act, 1987, – acquitting 08 accused in the 36-year-old case in connection with the burning of 19-year-old Roop Kanwar on the pyre of her husband.

In a joint statement issued here on Thursday evening, signed by the representatives of more than a dozen NGOs or civil society outfits, the signatories have expressed their concern and anguish over the exoneration of those involved in such a serious case.

They not only urged the state government to file an appeal against the acquittal of the eight accused but also stressed exploring the viability of a (delayed) appeal or other legal remedy for the prosecution of many other accused who earlier were acquitted in 2004.

Since most of the signatories were involved in the legal fight for duly punishing the guilty in the incident, they gave a detailed account of the case and its legal aspects. They stated: “We are women’s organisations who form a section of the women’s movement in the state and who have worked on the Sati (Bride Burning) case since September 4, 1987, when 19-year-old Roop Kanwar was forced onto the pyre of her husband.

We are not surprised that the acquittal has come in yet another set of glorification cases, filed in the aftermath of the Rajasthan Ordinance against Sati, 1987 and the Central Law called the Commission of Sati Prevention Act, 1987. We are very clear that delay in decisions by the judiciary, as well as acquittal, only reinforces a culture of Sati Glorification”.

They said it should be known that more than 17 people (we have the cases) were acquitted on January 31, 2004, including those cases which had former Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore and Pratap Singh Kachariywas, senior leaders of the Sati Dharma Raksha Samiti and Rajput Sabha Bhawan Jaipur.

The activist women recall, “The Rajasthan state Law Department took a decision to not go in appeal, the women’s organisations went pillar to post to see that the acquittal is challenged as the trial was most slipshod and neither the Police, the prosecution or the Sati special court Judge in Jaipur, seemed to have done a fair job. It was a clear case for appeal. The then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, refused to budge from her position that this matter did not require any further legal pursuit.”

“With no option but to go ourselves to the court, 14 organisations and individuals moved the Rajasthan High Court in a civil writ petition, praying that the high court order an appeal against the 17 accused of the four cases of glorification. Our writs too have been pending for the last 20 years,” they said.

Successive Rajasthan governments, including the one led by Ashok Gehlot, did not change their position which is obvious, as both parties did not want to antagonise the Rajput vote bank, and leaders of both sides were implicated in the case, the statement reads.

The signatories demanded that the present-day BJP-led government in the state should ask its law officers to file an appeal in these cases.

The Public Prosecutor of the special court has already made public statements. These cases should go into appeal within the stipulated 90-day period of filing an appeal to the appellate court.

The signatories on the statement are the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Kavita Srivastava), All India Democratic Women’s Association, Rajasthan (Sumitra Chopra), National Federation of Indian Women Rajasthan (Nisha Sidhu), Vividha, women’s documentation and Resource Centre (Mamta Jaitly), Rajasthan University Women’s Association (Dr. Lad Kumari Jain), All India Progressive Women’s Association (Manjula Sharma), The Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Rajasthan (Komal Srivastava), National Muslim women’s welfare society, Jaipur (Nishat Hussain), Mehnatkash Sewa evam Sandharbh Samiti, Rajasthan (Mewa Bharti) Academy for Socio Legal Studies (Dharmeshwari), Women’s Rehabilitation Group (Renuka Pamecha), Women’s cell, Rajasthan Karmachari Sangh (Asha Kalra), Vishakha, Mahila Shiksha evam Shodh Sansthan (Shabnam), Dr Pawan Surana, former Chairperson Rajasthan State Women’s Commission.