A year with the Criminal Justice Team(Insider’s view)

The fieldwork component of the LLM at Azim Premji University has been an eye opener in many respects. I thought I would become a bitter critique of the Judicial system but that transformation is yet to take place. Since I was in the criminal justice group, there were a lot of deliberations on what the group should do,(what course of action the group should take) the topic of rape was floating around and then there was the prospect of covering the story or the narrative of the first two woman in India to be sentenced to the death penalty. While there was a fair share of see- sawing our faculty mentor guided us to concentrate our efforts in the state of Karnataka. We then zeroed in on the death penalty cases to understand how fault and blame played out in the cases and  the sentencing conundrum which was rather Judge centric.

Meeting Advocate Jagdeesha since he represented death penalty convicts was rather helpful. He mooted the bifurcation of the project. There was an initial consensus on Saibanna then we were guided to the Umesh Reddy case. 

The advocate had counselled us about the impending urgency in Umesh Reddy’s case. (In October 2016 he filed a petition in the HC, the HC then stated the hanging of Umesh Reddy.) Umesh Reddy seemed destined for the gallows, his chances at appeal didn’t  seem bright at all as he was a serial offender, and he could be executed soon, therefore it would be a good idea to consider his case.

 I learnt through the study of the case that Umesh Reddy wasn’t a bad student, did not have abusive parents despite the fact that his father was a drunkard. His mother took most of the decisions at home. The Father some say was henpecked , however  this wasn’t the stereotypical criminal we were looking at. 

In India for a post in the CRPF a Central Para military force, there is a fair share of competition and the job is coveted. Not only did Umesh clear these exams but he had also enrolled with the NCC while in  School. 

My view about development is rather generic, the state should provide for the poor, build roads , dams provide legal aid for the poor as enshrined in Article 39A of the constitution etc. 

In that regard Umesh Reddy was offered legal aid but turned down the same his family arranged their own lawyers. He used  his right to appeal, right from trial Court to the HC to the Supreme Court. This isn’t a Kangaroo Court system here. Umesh also moved mercy petitions before the Governor and the President both of which were rejected.

As a lawyer I came to learn how not to shoot down ideas of those who aren’t from the legal background. The exhibition output depended a lot on the efforts of those who weren’t lawyers in the group.

Meeting Umesh Reddy- After our letters were rejected by the IG Prisons, I felt it was a fate accompli that we will not meet Umesh Reddy. Our Trip to Chitradruga wasn’t the greatest success as we couldn’t meet the brother of Umesh Reddy(who agreed to meet us initially but then backed out), although we met his cousin. It was on the second trip to Belgaum that we got lucky and met Umesh Reddy through the efforts of Investigating Officer Nyama Gowda. 

Meeting Umesh Reddy reminded me of how a system can totally wear a man out. Umesh looked much older than what he seemed in the pictures. I was reminded of the movie blue streak where Tommy Lee Jones is heavily sedated and sent to military prison and considered as insane only because he pointed out some flaws in his commanding officers work .

In our interactions with Umesh Reddy he did admit to the fact that he had stolen the items that were recovered from him. He did not admit to committing any of the rapes especially the Jayashree murder case for which he was getting the death penalty. He said he had no DNA of the victim in his nails, when he was examined. 

Again even after all this I cannot quite fathom what his motivation was to kill Jayashree. Even his advocate admitted to the fact that a murder had taken place but to prove the same beyond reasonable doubt was tough.

Throughout the exercise we did not take a view on death penalty, we only found a few lacuna in the investigating process and procedure. The Roopa case which took place in Chitradurga and gave Umesh Reddy a not guilty verdict, should have been challenged in a higher court of law but was not. 

Even Justice Santosh Hegde said that the judgement should have been challenged in a higher court. The cousin of Umesh Reddy was unsure whether he committed that crime. According to him money had exchanged hands and as the sons of some powerful people were involved Umesh Reddy was made the scapegoat after paying him off handsomely.

I was surprised to see that Umesh Reddy wasn’t poor or disadvantaged, his family owned a considerable amount of land. They had become reclusive, the villagers said they were not boycotting them rather it was the other way around that the family kept minimal or no contact with the outside world or villagers.

An interesting point was raised in the panel discussion by Justice Santosh Hegde where he said that if section 302 and section 376 IPC are amended then the judges will not impose the death penalty. The rights of a victim indeed are extinguished by an accused therefore leniency, clemency etc. should be seen from that light too. Dr. Anup Surendarnath on the other hand said that the rarest of the rare criteria was rather vague at best.  The lawyers in the group easily came up with the plan to host the discussion about fault and blame. At some point one feels that law schools play quite a role in blunting the creative edge in lawyers and makes one read, reread the text and question the text alone. The brain seems to become unidimensional and not question or not think out of the box.

Regarding the goals we had discussed, we in my opinion have successfully come out with the human narratives perspective, our report is still being drafted. We  have learned more about the Criminal justice system and learned a lot about the lacuna in the Criminal Justice System. In some ways we can call our exercise undertaken here as a mitigation exercise. 

The Ethics debate- One lawyer in the group had serious ethical issues with what to share on the media platform, while her team went on to share photos with the consent of the family ostensibly on social media our team that went to Belagaum and Chitradrugra only shared pictures with the retired IO and the places where Umesh Reddy used to frequent. This Ethical consideration finally proved an impediment in highlighting what our team did as we had decided not to make public our meeting with Umesh Reddy.

A lot of procedural hassle was avoided by us since Adv. Jagdeesha and Investigating Officer Nayama Godwa helped us with documents from the Trial Court and the High Court. We couldn’t attend court or the court hearings due to our schedule and in a way I felt hamstrung since we couldn’t meet the advocates who represented Umesh Reddy at the Trial Court stage in Chitradurga and Bangalore. The arguments at the Higher Court and Apex Court are more about law and confirmation of the lower court imposition of the death penalty rather than an honest appreciation of evidence.

Conclusion

In the end I am still not very moved to dismiss the Indian legal system as a whole. Umesh Reddy is still alive while I write this. I feel he was not treated the best and his Jaw seemed broken to me, the Jail Superintendent also did admit to the fact that if death penalty is not given soon, we know how to make life a rather harrowing experience for blokes like Umesh while also admitting to the fact that he didn’t support death penalty. It was nice to see that the Superintendent said this as in the Dec 16 rape Nirbhaya case the opinion is already rather solidified on the issue, with not much leeway here or there.

Again can/could good Legal representation get Umesh off the Stand? I am unsure about this as he indeed was a serial offender(not necessarily serial Killer). Most judgements did not launch or attempt to understand this man, who once served the nation but somehow took to a life of violence etc. later.  In our discussion with the GQ article authors The Camera person Ayush Ranka did allude to the fact that Umesh Reddy did love some woman but she probably rejected his advances and got married, this probably galled him to no end, unleashing rather sinister tendencies in him. Regarding his sexual perversity none in the village admitted to the fact that he misbehaved with any girls in school, they did indeed admit to the fact that he stole goats, shoes, chappals and geometry boxes all these were sold to make some pocket money. As I write this I am still torn inside to know that this man has very few days to live.. I still stand unconvinced about the beyond reasonable doubt criteria.