NB: The systematic destruction of India’s criminal justice system is something that few bother to investigate. As a result we carry on as if nothing has happened. Mass carnage, rampant corruption, disappearance of witnesses, the mysterious death of a judge siting on a crucial case, death in custody of an 84 year old priest with Parkinson’s disease, not even brought to trial, not even granted bail; its all been normalised as life in modern India. People struggle valiantly to maintain their faith in democracy, but what can be done when those sworn to uphold the law are themselves driven by the impulse to destroy it? DS
First posted February 18, 2017
In an explosive 60-page note that Kalikho Pul wrote one day before he killed himself in Itanagar last August, the former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh has levelled serious allegations of corruption against constitutional functionaries and a host of top politicians in the state – including current chief minister Pema Khandu and his deputy Chowna Mein. The note, whose existence was first disclosed to the media by the former Arunachal Pradesh governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa last October, has remained under wraps since it was first discovered alongside Pul’s body on August 9, 2016. Its contents have remained the subject of intense speculation until today.
Sealed copies of the note were seized by the police when it arrived on the scene but nothing has been heard of Pul’s allegations since then. The Wire’s Hindi site, which has obtained a copy of the note – titled ‘Mere Vichaar’ or ‘My Thoughts’ – is publishing it in its entirety today because it believes the people of Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the India have the right to know what prompted the former chief minister to take his own life. An English translation is is available here.
The Wire is not in a position to verify the accuracy of the allegations that Pul has made in the note but believes the circumstances of its drafting – it is akin to a dying declaration of sorts – and the gravity of charges warrant an independent investigation. So far, neither the state government, which is today in the hands of Pema Khandu of the Bharatiya Janata Party, nor the Centre, has bothered to order a probe into the note’s wrenching allegations. This makes it all the more important that its broad details be brought into the public domain. The note, typed in Hindi with Pul’s signature on every page, has been scanned by The Wire and is available at http://www.thewirehindi.com.
The note makes allegations of corruption against a number of individuals, including politicians from the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party. Pul, a Congress leader who revolted against the Congress-led Nabam Tuki government in 2015, became chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for four-and-a-half months in 2016 before the Supreme Court held the dismissal of the Tuki government at the hands of Governor Rajkhowa to be unconstitutional. Pul resigned on July 13, 2016, the day the court gave its ruling. A broken and disillusioned man, he killed himself on August 8, 2016.
Due to the sensitive nature of the claims the note contains, we have redacted some of the names and details involved. Pul believes the Supreme Court was wrong to eventually rule in favour of Nabam Tuki, the Congress chief minister with whom he broke in 2015. In Pul’s telling, Tuki, his erstwhile ally, Pema Khandu, who is now in the BJP, and Khandu’s late father, Dorjee Khandu, milked the state exchequer for years, especially by manipulating funds intended for the public distribution system (PDS), as well as relief funds. The Wire is not in a position to independently corroborate these allegations… read more:
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A Brief History of the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan; Movement Against Communalism (1984-1993)
मध्यमार्ग का अवसान: दिलीप सिमियन (EPW, November 2014)
Apoorva Mandhani: Judge Loya’s Confidants Died Mysterious Deaths
Constitutional principles go for a toss in the criminal law of search and seizure
Slavoj Žizek: Manipur is not only in India
India’s subdivision of criminality (how one massacre deserves another)
Police in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh accused of unlawful killings
Fr Stan Swamy, accused in Elgaar Parishad case, dies at 84
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An ex-CM commits suicide in 2016, alleging corruption in the high judiciary – no probe. A senior judge in a sensitive case involving a political heavyweight dies a mysterious death. His family thinks it might be murder & India’s pliant media covers it up. (January 2018)
Between 1939 and 1941, some 100,000 German men, women and children (prisoners, mental cases, alcoholics), were killed by a group of German doctors under the direction of Dr Werner Heyde, neurologist, at the University of Wurzburg. The means used were lethal injections, poison gas and starvation. Some of the doctors had written false death certificates and co-operated with the authorities to keep the actions a secret. These persons were tried in 1960 in a Hamburg court, and acquitted on grounds of being unaware of the illegality of their actions. One of their elder colleagues had this to say of them: ‘It is true they have a head but its too close to their arse, because they have no backbone‘: Paraphrased from J P Stern, The Fuhrer and the People, 1992; p 192. Fortunately some of our senior judges have shown exemplary courage. They deserve our thanks.
The public protest of four senior SC judges is unprecedented and marks the most massive crisis in Indian justice since the Emergency. The criticisms being levelled at the judges are ironical. One op-ed writer says they have crossed the line. How would he describe a situation wherein the CJI insists on hearing a case allegedly involving himself; refusing an applicant the right to speak his arguments, and moreover, permitting the advent of sympathetic lawyers into the court to shout at applicants? When the CJI reiterates that he is master of roster, accuses applicants of forum shopping; and then uses that to indulge in what appears to be bench fixing, who exactly is crossing the line here? Read more about the events of November 10, 2017 here.
When the mysterious death of a judge in a case with grievous political implications is not assigned to any of the senior judges, and sought to be hushed up, who is crossing the line? A former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court has asked for this to be investigated, yet the bulk of our media and commentators refuse to pursue the matter – what line is being crossed and by whom?
The biggest scandal that has been quietly buried both by the Government and the pliant media, is that of the suicide note left by Kalikho Pul, ex-Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh in 2016.
Pul alleged that brokers approached him in the run up to the Supreme Court’s July 2016 verdict (on the viability of his government) demanding large sums of money in order to ensure the judgment went in his favour. The latest version of the note implicates politicians from both Congress and BJP in rampant corruption. Page 23 refers to relations of SC judges asking for large sums of money to secure favourable verdicts. The BJP government proclaims its commitment to fight corruption from the rooftops – why is it refusing to probe these extremely serious allegations? Why is the suicide note not being treated as a dying declaration? Why is the press silent?
One prominent journalist writes: ‘whatever the system’s flaws, it is better than having the politicians mess with it.’ Were they not messing with it a long time ago? What did it mean when the elevation of Gopal Subramaniam was ‘borked’ by Mr Modi’s government immediately upon coming to power? Another says the protest will make it easier for the government to manage the judiciary. What was happening before the press conference? Was not the government meddling with justice?
Why was the judge dealing with the 2006 fake encounter cases in Gujarat transferred when he pulled up Amit Shah for non-appearance? Here are a few examples of what the governments actions in the first weeks of coming to power in 2014. Why do we hear nothing about the Vyapam case in Madhya Pradesh where over 40 possible witnesses have died since 2013? Why the silence regarding reports linking the Sangh Parivar to Vyapam? Who threatened the retired judge Jyotsna Yagnik? Did not the Public Prosecutor in the Malegaon blast case Rohini Salian, protest the Government meddling that obliged her to resign? The move to get the SC to hear the case on Loya’s death is seen by some as a means to get it out of the Bombay HC. If this is the case, is this not a grave misuse of authority?
Messrs respected op-ed writers, what is is all this if not blatant messing with the criminal justice system? Why are most of you trying to pull the wool over our eyes? DS
Here are some recent comments. I shall add new comments when they appear:
Harpreet Singh Giani Caesar’s wife, it was said must be above suspicion
Watch: What Does the SC Judges’ Statement Mean for the Judge Loya Case?
Loya Case the Tipping Point, Four SC Judges Say Democracy Is in Danger
‘Black Day for Judiciary’: Legal Fraternity on Unprecedented Move by Four SC Judges
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After the truth-shower 