PUCL Chhattisgarh condemns the death sentence awarded by the Special NIA Court, Jagdalpur, to 10 convicts of the 2013 Jhiram Valley attack case. Death penalty is opposed to the Constitutional principles of Rule of Law and is not the answer any crime. The imposition of capital punishment in this case also raises grave concerns of unequal access to justice, individual culpability, and the disproportionate impact of the harshest punishments upon the poorest and most marginalised sections of society.
These death sentences must also be viewed against the present circumstances in Bastar. The State Government has repeatedly spoken of peace, dialogue, surrender and rehabilitation as part of its approach to ending the decades-long conflict. In that context, the State demanding the death penalty in this case, and the Court subsequently imposing it, sends a profoundly contradictory message.
For decades, the prisons of Bastar have held large numbers of Adivasi men and women arrested in alleged Maoist cases. Families and civil liberties groups have repeatedly raised cases of false implication, prolonged incarceration and eventual acquittal after years spent in prison. These are not peripheral issues to the conflict in Bastar. They are among its most enduring injustices.
Justice cannot become synonymous with vengeance. A genuine transition towards peace requires the State to confront the legacy of false arrests, prolonged undertrial incarceration and wrongful prosecutions, and to create a credible and transparent process for reviewing the cases of those who continue to languish in prison.
PUCL Chhattisgarh demands:
- Commutation of the death sentence and judicial review with full attention to individual culpability and mitigating circumstances.
- That the state addresses the conditions of conflict, coercion and deprivation that have drawn or compelled into the orbit of armed organizations.
- A recommitment to restorative, dialogue-based approaches to peace in Bastar over punitive measures that fall disproportionately on the poor.
