Legal experts fear manipulation of FIRs

ahmedabad: ‘‘the perpetrators of the gujarat bloodbath will be brought to the book,’’ resonates the political machinery at the centre, time and again. though a deluge of firs referring to mob violence accounts for the bloodied chapters of gujarat, in the end, the guardians of law may simply let loose the offenders with minor punishments. for, death sentence or life-term imprisonment may or may not be meted out to an offender, if a given case is converted from ‘‘murder’’ to ‘‘murder in dacoity’’, apprehend legal experts.they even have expressed serious doubts about the real killers of the recent riots ever being prosecuted, leave alone, being held guilty of the heinous crimes. sources said cases on the gruesome killing of 128 persons in the naroda-patia and chamanpura areas of ahmedabad during the riots could be given a turn with heavy pressure to replace from the firs section 302 (murder) of the ipc with sections 396, 397 and 398 of the ipc, which relate to ‘‘murder in dacoity’’. legal experts believe this possible move may just give a leeway to the offenders and could tone down their offence. the meghaninagar police, investigating the chamanpura incident in which former congress mp ehsan jaffri was also killed, have arrested 18 persons in the case. there are doubts too if the heavyweights named in the firs will ever be arrested. about the chamanpura case, the police say: ‘‘to start with, we had lodged the fir under section 302. but on questioning the witnesses, it was found that there were incidents of dacoity too.’’ but legal experts say while conviction in murder would automatically lead to a death sentence or life imprisonment, a conviction under sections of ‘‘murder in dacoity’’ concludes with death or imprisonment for life and fine or rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and a fine. in other words, the guilty can get away with a 10-year term that is not possible under section 302. criminal lawyer b m gupta says: ‘‘these are cases of brutal murder and cannot be scaled down to dacoity.’’ and, interestingly, police officers admit that they have been under pressure against arresting offenders or booking them under serious offences. joint commissioner of police m k tandon, however, said such talk of ‘‘replacing the sections is nonsense’’. the riot victims may feel they are on the path to getting justice by having filed the fir. but as advocates helping some of the victims are realising, the police may have skilfully manipulated many of the firs to ensure that the accused go scot-free. all they have to do is accuse a faceless mob of the violence, effectively ensuring that the fir ends up as just another piece of paper. with no specific person accused, the police will not be able to make any arrests even if they want to. citizen’s initiative, a consortium of 28 leading ngos in the city, has collected a large number of, what are known as, ‘omnibus firs’ where the name of the accused is given as ‘‘a mob of 10,000’’ or ‘‘an unruly mob’’.