Two Murders- Comparisons and Contrasts
(One murder was committed in a distant land; the other one nearer home. The two cases differed in other ways too. This short article shows how.)
Two murders took place- one of a young man called Stephens Lawrence in the city of London, on April 22, 1993 and the other of a young woman named Priyadarshini Mattoo in the city of New Delhi, on January 23, 1996. The London crime was a hate crime, born out of racist feelings; the one in New Delhi was a crime of passion.
In both cases, investigation done by the police was shoddy. In London, the Metropolitan Police handled the investigation and did a bad job. The police failed to unearth sufficient evidence to prosecute the five white young men involved in the case. The McPherson Commission of Inquiry that later inquired into the case found that “the investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers.”
In Delhi, lack of professional competence and failure of leadership was seen from the beginning when nobody paid any heed to various complaints made by the girl alleging frequent stalking, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation to which she was being subjected repeatedly by the accused Santosh Singh. The Delhi High Court in one of the hearings slammed the Delhi Police, saying they were the root cause of all this. Had they taken action in time, the girl’s life could have been saved. “The girl has died because of you and not the boy (accused)," said the judges. The accused was the son of a senior Delhi police officer, a reason enough for him to enjoy the impunity.
The Lawrence case was investigated second time by the Kent Police. The standard of investigation, as per the McPherson Commission report, was better, but did not lead to prosecution of the accused. The Mattoo case was transferred to the CBI, but the trial court did not agree with the findings of the investigation and acquitted the accused on December 3, 1999.
In the London case, the parents of the murdered man pursued the case with huge dignity, courage and determination. Their efforts supported by civil society finally pressurised the government to set up a Commission of Inquiry under Sir William McPherson of Cluny, a former High Court judge. In the Mattoo case too, the father of Priyadarshini refused to be cowed down by the initial failures and perused the case with dogged determination till the pressure generated by the media and civil society and the sense of public outrage at the acquittal in Jessica Lal case forced the Delhi High Court to decide the long pending appeal in quick time. Finally on Oct 17, 2006, the High court convicted the accused Santosh Singh for raping and killing Priyadarshini Mattoo.
Stephen Lawrence’s murder case, which was supposed to be dead long ago, came to life again when two of the five accused, Gary Dobson and David Norris were arrested by the police on September 7, 2010, and charged with murder. They were found guilty by the jury and sentenced by the trial court on January 4, 2012 to different terms of imprisonment.
The Lawrence as well as Mattoo case clearly show what civil society can do in a democratic society to fight against the denial of justice.
The similarities end here. The response of the police forces and the governments in the two countries was totally different. In the Lawrence case, the police admitted that their investigations were defective. Sir Paul Condon, the then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, made a public apology to the parents: “ I, we in the Met. feel a sense of shame for the incompetence of that first investigation and for how the family were let down. We could and we should have done better.” The then British Home Secretary, Sir Jack Straw announced in the House of Commons on February 24, 1999 that he felt ashamed “that the entire criminal justice system, and the Metropolitan Police Service in particular, failed the Lawrence family so badly.” In this country, clear evidence of bad investigation done by the police both in Jessica Lal and Mattoo cases came out, but no apology or remorse was expressed either by the police or the government.
Following the McPherson Inquiry report, the government in that country formulated an action plan to implement the recommendations. Besides improvements in the policies governing recruitment, training, internal inspection, disciplinary and accountability processes of the police, the Race Relations Act of 1976 was amended in 2000 to see that all public services followed policies, practices and procedures that promoted race equality. Here, we have yet to learn our lessons from the way the police forces and other public services have handled the communal riots.
The most significant outcome of the McPherson Committee’s recommendations was the establishment of an independent civilian oversight mechanism to inquire into public complaints against police personnel. The Independent Police Complaints Commission started functioning in the United Kingdom from 1.4.2004. In this country, despite the Supreme Court’s directives issued to the centre and states in Prakash Singh’s case on September 22, 2006, independent effective police complaint authorities are yet to be set up in most states.
There has been considerable criticism of the police for their poor investigation in Jessica Lal as well as Priyadarshini Mattoo cases. This is as it should be, as the police have to be accountable for their lapses. But what about the failures of the courts in such cases? The Delhi High Court called the judgment of the lower court “perverse”, which has “shocked the conscience of the judiciary.” The trial court judge was convinced that Santosh Singh had committed the crime, but he didn’t find evidence sufficient enough to convict the accused- the same evidence on which the higher court felt that the sentence had to be either death penalty or life imprisonment.
There was considerable euphoria over the judgment of the Delhi High Court. Public campaigns for justice launched in Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo deserve to be lauded, but they should not remain merely an urban middle class phenomenon. There are so many Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo belonging to poor and downtrodden families in villages and small towns of the country, but the civil society has not shown similar concern for their cry for justice.
(One murder was committed in a distant land; the other one nearer home. The two cases differed in other ways too. This short article shows how.)
Two murders took place- one of a young man called Stephens Lawrence in the city of London, on April 22, 1993 and the other of a young woman named Priyadarshini Mattoo in the city of New Delhi, on January 23, 1996. The London crime was a hate crime, born out of racist feelings; the one in New Delhi was a crime of passion.
In both cases, investigation done by the police was shoddy. In London, the Metropolitan Police handled the investigation and did a bad job. The police failed to unearth sufficient evidence to prosecute the five white young men involved in the case. The McPherson Commission of Inquiry that later inquired into the case found that “the investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers.”
In Delhi, lack of professional competence and failure of leadership was seen from the beginning when nobody paid any heed to various complaints made by the girl alleging frequent stalking, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation to which she was being subjected repeatedly by the accused Santosh Singh. The Delhi High Court in one of the hearings slammed the Delhi Police, saying they were the root cause of all this. Had they taken action in time, the girl’s life could have been saved. “The girl has died because of you and not the boy (accused)," said the judges. The accused was the son of a senior Delhi police officer, a reason enough for him to enjoy the impunity.
The Lawrence case was investigated second time by the Kent Police. The standard of investigation, as per the McPherson Commission report, was better, but did not lead to prosecution of the accused. The Mattoo case was transferred to the CBI, but the trial court did not agree with the findings of the investigation and acquitted the accused on December 3, 1999.
In the London case, the parents of the murdered man pursued the case with huge dignity, courage and determination. Their efforts supported by civil society finally pressurised the government to set up a Commission of Inquiry under Sir William McPherson of Cluny, a former High Court judge. In the Mattoo case too, the father of Priyadarshini refused to be cowed down by the initial failures and perused the case with dogged determination till the pressure generated by the media and civil society and the sense of public outrage at the acquittal in Jessica Lal case forced the Delhi High Court to decide the long pending appeal in quick time. Finally on Oct 17, 2006, the High court convicted the accused Santosh Singh for raping and killing Priyadarshini Mattoo.
Stephen Lawrence’s murder case, which was supposed to be dead long ago, came to life again when two of the five accused, Gary Dobson and David Norris were arrested by the police on September 7, 2010, and charged with murder. They were found guilty by the jury and sentenced by the trial court on January 4, 2012 to different terms of imprisonment.
The Lawrence as well as Mattoo case clearly show what civil society can do in a democratic society to fight against the denial of justice.
The similarities end here. The response of the police forces and the governments in the two countries was totally different. In the Lawrence case, the police admitted that their investigations were defective. Sir Paul Condon, the then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, made a public apology to the parents: “ I, we in the Met. feel a sense of shame for the incompetence of that first investigation and for how the family were let down. We could and we should have done better.” The then British Home Secretary, Sir Jack Straw announced in the House of Commons on February 24, 1999 that he felt ashamed “that the entire criminal justice system, and the Metropolitan Police Service in particular, failed the Lawrence family so badly.” In this country, clear evidence of bad investigation done by the police both in Jessica Lal and Mattoo cases came out, but no apology or remorse was expressed either by the police or the government.
Following the McPherson Inquiry report, the government in that country formulated an action plan to implement the recommendations. Besides improvements in the policies governing recruitment, training, internal inspection, disciplinary and accountability processes of the police, the Race Relations Act of 1976 was amended in 2000 to see that all public services followed policies, practices and procedures that promoted race equality. Here, we have yet to learn our lessons from the way the police forces and other public services have handled the communal riots.
The most significant outcome of the McPherson Committee’s recommendations was the establishment of an independent civilian oversight mechanism to inquire into public complaints against police personnel. The Independent Police Complaints Commission started functioning in the United Kingdom from 1.4.2004. In this country, despite the Supreme Court’s directives issued to the centre and states in Prakash Singh’s case on September 22, 2006, independent effective police complaint authorities are yet to be set up in most states.
There has been considerable criticism of the police for their poor investigation in Jessica Lal as well as Priyadarshini Mattoo cases. This is as it should be, as the police have to be accountable for their lapses. But what about the failures of the courts in such cases? The Delhi High Court called the judgment of the lower court “perverse”, which has “shocked the conscience of the judiciary.” The trial court judge was convinced that Santosh Singh had committed the crime, but he didn’t find evidence sufficient enough to convict the accused- the same evidence on which the higher court felt that the sentence had to be either death penalty or life imprisonment.
There was considerable euphoria over the judgment of the Delhi High Court. Public campaigns for justice launched in Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo deserve to be lauded, but they should not remain merely an urban middle class phenomenon. There are so many Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo belonging to poor and downtrodden families in villages and small towns of the country, but the civil society has not shown similar concern for their cry for justice.
