Rise to the level of The 'Common Man': B Renjith Marar

It was the mysterious middle aged man, who played the crucial role in ensuring the acquittal of the accused of Soumya murder. Prosecution witnesses Tomy Devasia and Abdul Shukkur heard the cries of the victim. Devasia wanted to pull the chain to stop train but was dissuaded by the middle-aged man near the compartment door, who said the girl had jumped out and escaped and that in such circumstances he should not take the matter any further as it might drag all of them to court.

Society has reasons to be more than concerned. There have been instances when the entire law governing the punishment and sentences for a particular case are amended after gruesome incident. Seldom have those amendments changed anything other than the literature on the statute book. If those amendments, like the one to the Indian Penal Code after Nirbhaya’s case in 2013 had any impact, there should not have been any further rape and acquittal. Yet shocking instances of rape and kidnap are being reported every other day. Woefully, citizens lack confidence in the justice delivery system because offenders often go scot free. A few are convicted after the ordeal of trial.

Witnesses and victims, already affected by acts of the accused, also undergo the trauma in the process of justice delivery. When the accused is acquitted for want of evidence, it sends out the wrong message to society. The process becomes the casualty, defeating the deterrent purpose of punishments. It is also the responsibility of citizens to nurture the processes of justice delivery system. Often, the citizen does not want to be a witness in the court, shirking his responsibility to uphold the system. By remaining passive, he is irresponsible to himself as well as to society.

All men in society need to rise to the level of “The common man” created by the late R.K. Laxman.   Everyman is heroic in his dreams but in reality he is meek and irresponsible and sheds crocodile tears. Justice delivery system is not the business of “a few good men”. In the Govindachamy case, more horrendous than the crime has been the irresponsible inaction of the mysterious middle man, who failed to respond in time to prevent the crime and restrained others from pulling the chain. This middle aged gentleman resides in all of us. Unless courts and investigating agencies instil confidence in society, the middle aged middle class man mindset will remain, undermining justice delivery.

Prosecuting and investigating agencies have always been caged parrots at the hands of politicians, nicknamed “corrupticians“. It is high time the investigating agency was separated from the law and order system, under the control of the executive. It must be a separate wing under the control of the prosecuting agency so that witnesses gain the confidence to speak up in the court, uninfluenced by the investigating agency or any other agency sensationalizing or politicizing the issue. Often the truth is hijacked by the innocence of witnesses or their being unaware of court proceedings. The insecurity of the mysterious middle-aged middle class man has to be redressed. Let’s strive to be “The Common Man”, who is upfront and confronts issues fearlessly.