New Delhi: The then Tamil Nadu government “failed to protect the tribal women…only safeguarded the erred officials, and failed to find out the real sandalwood smugglers” — the Madras High Court said as it upheld the conviction of over 200 forest and revenue officials and police personnel for atrocities against the tribal village of Vachathi in 1992.
In a judgment passed Friday, Justice P. Velmurugan also directed that Rs 10 lakh be paid to each of the victims, directly to their accounts. It further said that in the case of victims who are no longer alive, the compensation is to be paid to their family members.
The HC added that the government has to recover 50 percent of the Rs 10 lakh from the accused who have been convicted of raping 18 victims.
The court also directed the Tamil Nadu government to provide suitable jobs, either permanent or by self-employment, to the 18 rape victims or their family members, “for their livelihood, which were destroyed by the then government officials”.
It asked the state government to report to the court on the welfare measures taken to improve the livelihood and standard of living of Vachathi residents after the incident.
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What is the case?
According to the judgment, on 20 June 1992, officials from the forest, police and revenue departments entered Vachathi — located near the Chitheri hills in Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri district — on suspicion that the villagers were smuggling sandalwood and aiding bandit Veerappan.
The victims, however, had earlier told a trial court that the officials then dragged them out of their houses and fields, and made them all gather near a banyan tree in the village. They were then beaten up, and 17 women and a minor were raped, they added.
The victims claimed that the 18 rape victims — one of whom was 13 years old and another eight months pregnant — were taken in a lorry to the lake area, under the guise of finding sandalwood, according to the judgment.
The officials also damaged properties of the villagers, chopped their goats and ate them — continuing the atrocities for a few days, the judgment further said.
“The uniform force under the guise of raid mishandled the villagers and committed all type of atrocities both physically, verbally and also mentally,” the court noted.
The officials were convicted by a sessions judge in Dharmapuri in September 2011, more than 19 years after the incident. The high court was hearing appeals challenging the 2011 judgment, which convicted 215 officials under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
They were handed down prison terms ranging from one year to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Seventeen persons were convicted of rape and sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
‘Officials colluded with real smugglers’
The court asserted that all the officials, including the district collector, district forest officer and the superintendent of police, even though they knew “who are the real culprits, for the reason best known to them…have not taken any action…(sic)”.
It added: “…to safeguard the real culprits, the innocent villagers were victimised.”
The judgment also noted that the then collector of Dharmapuri district and revenue officials “have not shown any interest in the matter and did not care about the seriousness of the issue”, despite the fact that they were given a complaint prior to the raid regarding smuggling of sandalwood by the named persons.
“They have not taken any action against real sandalwood smugglers. In order to safeguard the actual smugglers and the big shots, the revenue officials, police officials and also the forest officials, with the help of the then government, played a big stage drama, in which the innocent tribal women got affected, and the pain and difficulties faced by them have to be compensated in terms of money and jobs (sic),” the court observed.
It noted that there was no checkpost between Vachathi village and the hills — the distance between both of which is only a quarter of a kilometre.
The bench then asserted that the forest department officials did not take any effective steps to prevent the alleged smuggling. This, it said, “shows that the officials colluded with the real smugglers, who engaged some of the villagers as coolie”.
The court, therefore, ordered, “Stringent action shall be taken against the then district collector, the then superintendent of police and finally the then district forest officer during the relevant period.”
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‘Under the guise of a raid’
According to the high court judgment, the officials committed several unlawful activities “under the guise of a raid” from 20 June 1992.
Several villagers were arrested and remanded to judicial custody, under various charges. After coming out on bail, the victims submitted complaints to the officials, with the help of the local MLA. However, when no action was taken, they filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court, the judgment said.
It was only in 1995 that the CBI registered a case and investigated the matter, after the Madras High Court passed an order in February that year, directing it to do so.
The case was registered in March 1995 under various provisions of the IPC, including sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 344 (wrongful confinement), and 376 (rape), along with provisions of the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, against 269 accused who were forest officials, revenue officials and police personnel.
To prove the charges, the prosecution examined 75 witnesses before the trial court.
In the high court, the accused had now submitted that the villagers of Vachathi were involved in the smuggling of sandalwood and that several cases had been registered against them, and therefore, “to wreck vengeance (sic)”, had foisted cases against the officials, according to the judgment.
They told the court that during the raid, 22 officials sustained injuries, and one of the officials, Selvaraj, was grievously injured.
The accused’s counsel also claimed that there was nothing to prove that all the accused actively participated in the raid. They also pointed out that, since all the accused were public servants, prior sanction was necessary for their prosecution.
However, the high court rejected this argument, asserting, “Even though they engaged in performing the official duty…when all the officials exceeded their limit and were involved in criminal offence, the sanction of prosecution is not necessary.”
“The villagers are members of the ST (Scheduled Tribes) community. Even though the accused are public servants, the acts committed by the appellants are not the official duty and they all committed all types of unlawful and illegal acts towards the innocent villagers of Vachathi village,” the court added.
It also rejected the contention that the villagers had foisted the case against the officials to escape allegations of smuggling.
The officials had contended that the villagers had attacked them during the raid. However, the court noted that on 20 June, when one of the officials, Selvaraj, sustained injuries, it was the villagers who took him to the hospital on a bullock cart.
‘Deviated from object of raid’
The judgment also took note that the state government did not initiate action against the erring officials despite several attempts by the victims.
For instance, it noted that a social activist, who was then the Tamil Nadu executive secretary of the All India Women Association, visited Vachathi village in 1992 and conducted an inquiry. Another report of the findings was also sent to the National Commission of SC/ST.
This was brought to the knowledge of the state government. However, the then state government did not take any action against the erring officers despite this report, the judgment said.
The court now opined that the prosecution had proved that all the convicts had committed the offence. It said that even though there were discrepancies and contradictions, they were not “material contradictions, which would go to the root of the case of the prosecution”.
This, it said, was “considering the peculiar nature of this case, and in view of the fact that unfortunately the case was also not registered immediately due to several hurdles and started investigation only after three years of the occurrence and trial was conducted after 10 years”
The court said that the evidence of all the victims and prosecution witnesses was “cogent and consistent, which are reliable”. The evidence, it said, showed that the accused, while conducting the raid, “deviated (from) the object of the raid”.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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