[Undertrial Marathi Movie Full Download
Virginie Fayad
These 118 were among 120 Somali pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard in four separate anti-piracy operations between January and March 2011 near the Lakshwadeep coast; two died of tuberculosis. Six years later, the trial against them is ending at a Mumbai court with the men having agreed to plead guilty, some to murder charges.
It is arguably the most number of foreign undertrials in a single case anywhere in the country. Some of them expect to walk free, having already served their sentence as undertrials. Others could be sent home to Somalia to complete the remainder of their term, if convicted.
The prosecution would have interpreters, mainly Somali students from Pune University, two per hearing. They were paid a stipend of Rs 3,000 each per day. However, since student visas restricted their movement outside Pune, the Yellow Gate police had to approach the Security Branch in Pune for permission every time there was a hearing.
At the start of the trial, the Somali Embassy did not engage a defence lawyer. The court appointed advocate Suraj Hulke as amicus curiae, who examined over 77 witnesses for the accused until August 2016. Then the accused suddenly told the court they wanted to plead guilty.
Hulke claims the Embassy did not consult him on this decision. Last year, advocate Vishwajeet Singh representing the Somali Embassy told the court that the men were willing to give an undertaking that they would not cross-examine the remaining witnesses, nor appeal against the sentence unless it was the death penalty.
His advocate BT Venkatesh, a former state public prosecutor, said, "It is a very inhuman thing. There seem to be special terrorists and 'common' terrorists like Quta. Even the 26/11-accused Kasab's case was over in under four years despite it going to the Supreme Court." Venkatesh said Quta was arrested one year before Kasab, but his trial is still underway.
He added that film actor Sanjay Dutt, who had a similar allegation of possessing an AK-47, has even completed his sentence and is out of jail. He admitted that Quta's was a serious offence, but it was important to complete the trial, and award suitable punishment, if found guilty. "Why should the Damocles Sword keep hanging? What is the message we are sending out? The buck was passed between four courts. I have lost count of the number of judges who have heard his case," he said.
Quta sought two weeks interim bail to visit Srinagar as his father had died. But this request was not allowed. Venkatesh said, "The only places he has seen in the last 10 years is the prison in Parappana Agrahara and the City Civil and Sessions Court. If Nalini, who was convicted in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, can go to her father's funeral, why not Quta?" He said even Dutt came out on parole to finish his films. There are charges on Quta under the Passport Act also. "Even if he is found guilty in it, he has already served more than the sentence prescribed," Venkatesh said.
Quta's petition for two-weeks bail came up before Justice AV Chandrashekara. The court, in its judgement on March 2, directed the trial judge "to dispose of the matter without undue delay, keeping in mind that the accused/petitioner is in judicial custody for the past nine years."
Quta did not get the two-week bail but the HC ordered a day-to-day trial. The judgement said, "It is expected that the learned judge would take up the matter preferably on a day-to-day basis to hear the arguments on merits from the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned public prosecutor and to dispose of the matter giving priority."
Venkatesh further asked, "If tomorrow he is acquitted, who will bring him back 10 years of his life? It has taken 7.5 years to examine 30 witnesses. It took all of two years to examine just two witnesses. Keeping someone an undertrial for nine years is a crime by the state." Quta was married and his wife was pregnant when he was arrested.
Any reimagination of the law on bail needs to first understand the exact nature of the problem that results in large-scale undertrial incarceration. This assessment needs to be based on multiple parameters and we have no real empirical evidence on how each of these impacts the issue. What proportion of undertrials are applying for bail? What proportion of bail applications are accepted or rejected, and on what grounds? Is bail compliance a far bigger problem than denial of bail? These are some fundamental empirical questions which need answers. An effective bail law must be based on the correlation of these answers with variables such as the demographics of undertrials, category of offences and timelines for bail, and also address socio-economic and structural barriers. The foundations of the current bail law ensure that it is anti-poor and disproportionately burdens those from marginalised backgrounds. The solutions we intend to craft must be based on a deep and realistic understanding of the problem.
This is important because marginalised persons bear the brunt of these broad exceptions. They are either denied bail or granted bail with onerous conditions, in absolute disregard of their realities. Bail conditions in the nature of cash bonds, surety bond, proof of property ownership and solvency, as is commonplace, are at odds with the reality of undertrial prisoners languishing in jails.
Our experience shows that in 14% of cases, undertrials were unable to comply with bail conditions and remained in prison despite being granted bail. In almost 35% of these cases, it took over a month after obtaining the bail for undertrials to comply with bail conditions and secure their release.
Medha Deo and Mayank Labh are with the Fair Trial Programme, an undertrial legal aid initiative at Project 39A, National Law University Delhi. The programme provides legal aid to undertrials in Pune and Nagpur central prisons
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The Bombay High Court recently observed that the physical production of undertrial prisoners to the court can be 'cumbersome', and that their production could be ensured using a Video Conferencing (VC) facility with dedicated links for prison authorities and time schedules communicated in advance.At various stages it may not be necessary to produce the accused, as production of the...
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