Express News Service : New Delhi, Fri Oct 18 2013, 01

The Supreme Court Thursday described Haryana‘s 2010 Mirchpur violence against Dalits as a “scar on society” and said that burning a physically challenged girl alive was “unacceptable” from any standard of human life.

A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C Nagappan reproached the state government for its inaction and failure in protecting the life of its citizens and maintaining the law and order situation. Dalit settlements were targeted and torched by the members of the dominant Jats in April 2010 in which a 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically challenged daughter were killed.

“Can you deny that houses were burnt; people were killed? What a tragedy that a physically handicapped girl is burnt to death and the state cannot protect her. Is it a commendable job by the state? What was your administration doing at the relevant time,” the Bench lashed out.

Censuring the government for raising doubts over the veracity of the damning report by the SC-mandated panel, the Bench said: “A particular class had the liberty to kill people and burn their houses. And you still argue that the district judge (who headed the two-member panel) did not give a proper report. They (victims) cannot go back to their houses now. How can they go back in the atmosphere of terror and fear of their lives?”

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