The People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) on Thursday urged the Rajasthan government to file an appeal against a local court’s judgement of acquitting eight accused in the infamous case of Roop Kanwar ‘Sati’ of Deorala in Sikar district.
Expressing unhappiness over the court verdict on Wednesday in the 37 -year old case, PUCL national president Kavita Srivastava said here that we are not at all surprised by the court’s order. She said “stretching the trial and judgement in such sensitive cases, as long as 37 years, itself makes the delivery of justice insignificant. That is why we say justice delayed means justice denied”.
In the 37- year long trial in this case, the state government’s (prosecution)–those led either by the Congress or the BJP–did not demonstrate will to convict the accused, who either were involved in the commission of the crime of immolating 18-year old Roop Kanwar or glorifying the act as “Sati”. This is evident from the fact that most of the accused have been acquitted for the want of the adequate evidence.
Earlier, in 2004 ,around 25 accused were acquitted in the case by the trial court. The then Vasundhara Raje -led government had publicly took stance against filing an appeal challenging the acquittal.”That is why PUCL want to urge the Bhajan Lal government to file appeal challenging the trial court’s order of Wednesday”, Ms Srivastava said.
The trial court of Additional District Judge (Sati Prevention) Akshi Kansal yesterday had acquitted eight accused ,all denizens of Deorala village where the incident had taken place on September 4, 1987.
In all 45 persons, including former Ministers Rajendra Singh Rathore (BJP) and Pratap Singh Khachariyavas (Congress), were made accused in the case. Of them 25 accused, including Rathore and Khachariyavas, had already been acquitted 20 years ago, eight were exonerated yesterday. Of the rest, four had been declared absconders and eight had died long back.
The incident that was then glorified as “Sati” by various community organisations had not only triggered political upheaval in Rajasthan but also prompted the Centre to legislate the harsh Sati (Prevention) Act 1987 and taking several other preventive measures. The incident had compelled the then state Chief Minister Haridev Joshi to quit.