‘Commercial enterprise': HC slams plea seeking Rs 1cr relief in 2010 Mirchpur violence

Time of India

4 days ago

Chandigarh: Rejecting a plea seeking more monetary compensation for those killed injured in the 15-year-old Mirchpur caste violence case of Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana high court has observed that the entire exercise "now appears to have become a commercial enterprise".
"The review petitioners have sought compensation of Rs 1 crore in case of death and Rs 25 lakh in case of injury. This court is, therefore, constrained to observe that the entire exercise appears to have become a commercial enterprise," the HC held in its order released on Tuesday.
Referring to crores of rupees spent by the state govt in the past 15 years on the rehabilitation of families of the Valmiki community, including lakhs of rupees paid as compensation, construction of houses in the village, jobs, govt houses and security personnel to victim families, the court recorded that most families who migrated from Mirchpur village returned and never complained about any threat or violence in the village.
In its detailed order, the HC recorded the date and year-wise money spent by the state authorities on the victims for rehabilitation.
The petitioners, however, failed to rebut or counter the same.
With regard to some villagers who are living in the farmhouse of a mining contractor, Ved Pal Tanwar, near Hisar, the court observed that they seemed to have preferred to live in the vicinity of Hisar city due to chances of better earning.
On a plea made by the review petitioner that 15 victims had not yet been allotted plots, state govt placed on record the complete record of allotments. On this, petitioners could not reply and their contentions were recorded to be "incorrect" by the bench.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Nidhi Gupta passed these orders while disposing of a review petition filed by Jaswant Singh and others.
The review petitioners in this case mainly emphasised that the rehabilitation of victims was incomplete as there were still some victims remaining who had not been allotted plots, that no employment or any kind of compensation had been given to the victims.
Responding to the petition, the home department of Haryana submitted that after the April 2010 incident, 40-45 families continued to reside in the village of Mirchpur.
Only 33 families migrated from Mirchpur, who also subsequently returned to the village, and these families never made any complaint against any co-villager regarding any threat or violence.
On April 21, 2010, a large number of upper-caste residents attacked a dalit locality in Mirchpur and burnt houses, resulting in the death of 70-year-old Tara Chand and his physically challenged daughter Suman. The violence broke out after a dalit's dog barked at youths belonging to upper castes.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the village after the caste violence made headlines in the national and international media.
Over 150 Dalit families allegedly fled the village after their houses were torched.
In Dec 2010, the Supreme Court transferred the trial of the case to Delhi to ensure a fair trial on a plea by families of victims. On Oct 31, 2011, three persons were sentenced to life imprisonment, five to imprisonment for varying periods up to five years, and seven for one year for their alleged involvement in the incident. On February 1, 2011, the court ordered the deployment of CRPF at Mirchpur village to protect prosecution witnesses.
In Dec 2016, the paramilitary forces were removed by the central govt after incurring around Rs 20 crore in expenses.