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India: 215 guilty of abuses including rape
India: 215 guilty of abuses including rape - UPI.com
NEW DELHI, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- An Indian court has convicted 269 police and forestry officials -- 54 of them posthumously -- of torture and abuse during an anti-smuggling raid in 1992.
The convictions end a trial that began after arrests in 1996. Bringing the accused to justice has taken so long that 54 of them died since charges were filed, Indian media said.
Judges handed down the convictions in a special court in Dharmapuri in India's most southerly state of Tamil Nadu.
The police raid in 1992 was part of an operation to track down Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, a notorious sandalwood and ivory smuggler who had a bounty on his head ranging from $400,000 to more than $1 million.
All of the accused, which included nearly 100 policemen, were convicted for their part in two days of organized violence against people in the village of Vachathi.
Offenses also included destroying evidence, wrongful confinement and unlawful assembly. India's Central Bureau of Investigation said police and forestry officials went on a rampage, thrashing men, women and children and demolishing huts.
The Tamil Nadu state government denied the charges, a report in The Hindu newspaper said.
State Agriculture Minister Forests Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, who was Forests minister in 1992, had accused the entire village of being involved in sandalwood smuggling. When an investigation team arrived villagers attacked them.
Among the victims, 18 women were raped and more than 100 people were abused and their homes and cattle looted, the court heard.
Seventeen officials were found guilty of rape and the rest were convicted of "atrocities" against Dalits, the name for India's lowest caste people, formerly called "untouchables."
The court sentenced 12 men to 10 years each in prison and five men were given 7-year sentences. The remaining accused were given jail terms of 2-5 years.
"This is an historic judgment," said P. Shanmugam, president of the Tamil Nadu Tribal People's Association. "All the accused in this case are government officials. To date, I don't think so many government officials have been convicted in a single case."
The judge gave all of them a month to appeal in the Madras High Court.
Vachathi, is close to Sathyamangalam forest, full of sandalwood trees and the suspected hunting ground and hideout of Veerappan, a local Dalit who was 52 when he was gunned down along with three comrades in a jungle shootout in 2004.
He was wanted in connection with more than 100 killings, including that of a former state minister and police officers, and for kidnappings, including that of a Bollywood film star Rajkumar who was held for 108 days before being freed.
His trade was sandalwood smuggling and elephant poaching for ivory.
His death brought to an end his banditry but his legacy is mixed. To some the wiry, handlebar-mustachioed man was a modern-day Robin Hood, dispensing kindness and money to villagers. But other people said they feared repercussions if they didn't cooperate in hiding sandalwood and ivory, even though they were rewarded for aiding him.
Rajkumar, upon hearing of Veerappan's death in 2004, said police should have killed him earlier.
"Anti-social elements like Veerappan should not be allowed to live," he said.
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