FOR TEN LONG years a father waged a determined and dogged campaign to get justice for his murdered daughter, Priyadarshini Mattoo. Over the years, you just read some bits of news here and there about the case, but there was not much media coverage. Stories more gruesome than Priya’s attracted our attention and in time we as a nation learnt to live with one more case of injustice. For the father and other family members and friends it was, however, not so simple. Their pain was constant and permanent. There was no way to get their beloved Priya back, but they were determined get justice.
In the meantime, the accused — the son of a senior police officer — roamed around scot-free. He finished his law studies, started practising law (the irony of it), got married, had a child and carried on without any feeling of guilt. The police and lower courts, following the tradition of corruption, influence and greed, manipulated things in a manner that led to Santosh Singh, the accused, being acquitted.
The judge, although faced with overwhelming evidence, still gave him the benefit of doubt and set him free.
Unfortunately for Santosh Singh and fortunately for Priya’s kith and kin, this judgement came at a time when a nation weary of hearing cases of miscarriage of justice every other day was restless to set things right. To their assistance came the media that had come into their own in the preceding years. Private channels — some of them with a conscience and an agenda of social responsibility — had multiplied and they stepped in to highlight these miscarriages of justice and bring them back centre-stage.
What happened thereafter is well recorded. One after another the young and the old stood up in support of not only Mr Mattoo, but also Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal’s sister and father. Bollywood lent its creative might by way of a movie like Rang De Basanti that shook the youth as nothing had in quite a while. From candle light vigils to petitions of support, the nation raised its voice. A 12th class student took some time off from his studies and exams to run a petition of support online for Jessica. Of course, the cynics — and there are many — scoffed at this sudden show of emotion. Coarsened by 60 years of corruption and trivialization of the justice system, they insisted that this was just a short-termed outpouring of grief, made fashionable by the Rang De Basanti candle vigil scene. They were sure that neither our youth nor we as a nation had the staying power to fight the rot in our judicial and police systems.
Well today they have been proved wrong. The High Court has announced a guilty verdict against Santosh Singh. Mr Mattoo and his young supporters, who were with him all these years, have had a victory of sorts. While their loss remains the same, they have the satisfaction of seeing the criminal behind bars.
Now, we all can approach the next two cases that of Nitish and Jessica with renewed hope. There are also many pending cases in this nation where the accused have used power, money and influence to bribe their way out of courts. To those who think that this is just a flash in the pan, I would only say that it will take some time to set our judicial system right, but it can be done. We will lose everything only when we as a nation lose hope and our conscience. Our youth is not apathetic, our media is socially responsible and we still have it in us to feel a father’s pain. I strongly believe that we can make a difference and we have the capability to change things.
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