Spotlight cast on flaws of Indian judicial system

FE Team | Published: August 05, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Joe Leahy, FT Syndication Service
MUMBAI: Last week Mumbai was enthralled by its own version of the celebrity trial - the sentencing of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt in a case linked to the city's 1993 terrorist bombings.
Media coverage of the trial of Mr Dutt, who was given six years in jail for illegally possessing firearms, involved scoops on who he spent his last evening with as a free man, live TV coverage of "Sanjay's first night in jail" and even fashion pictorial spreads criticising the different shirts he wore each day to the court.
Mr Dutt's case also sparked a debate touching on a more fundamental issue - India's dysfunctional judicial system.
The actor had the highest profile among the 100 people, mostly Muslims, sentenced in relation to bomb attacks that left 257 people dead.
One of India's worst terrorist attacks, the bombs were carried out in retaliation for the destruction by Hindu fundamentalists of the historic 16th century Babri mosque in northern India in 1992 and subsequent Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai in which 900 people, mostly Muslims, died.
While scores of conspirators in the plot were given death or life sentences, Mr Dutt was absolved of any direct role in the bombings.
The judge said the actor had kept the weapons, a Chinese version of the AK-47, and a pistol, allegedly for self-defence.
Whatever the merits of his case, Mr Dutt was in fact one of the unlucky ones. Few of his Bollywood peers have served time for their offences.
Another actor Salman Khan, for example, is appealing against prison sentences for poaching endangered wildlife and is fighting another charge over a hit-and-run driving incident in 2002.
India's politicians, meanwhile, often operate with near impunity from the law, with hundreds running for elections despite having criminal charges pending against them.
Some argue that Mr Dutt's misfortune was to have been involved in a highly politicised terrorism case that gained new urgency after more bombings shook Mumbai last year.
Javed Gaya, a Mumbai lawyer, said India's unwieldy court system urgently needed reform but this was unlikely with so many politicians facing criminal proceedings.
"The judicial system needs a root and branch reform and the problem is there is no political will to do that," Mr Gaya said.