Kargil sets the pace
THE increasing disquiet across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir is primarily the result of the troubles Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is facing at home.

Stock market smiling again
POLITICS is going through a painful process of regrouping. Economics, however, is casting off its two-year-old lethargy and moving up in a brisk way.

Hope for Muslim women
THE right to maintenance granted by the judiciary in the famous Shah Bano case was considerably diluted by Rajiv Gandhi through the introduction of the Muslim Women’s (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.

BOFORS TO THE FORE AGAIN
by Inder Malhotra
THERE are two ways of looking at the Vajpayee government’s decision to prosecute a former Congress External Affairs Minister, Mr Madhavsinh Solanki, for his intriguing role in the apparently unending Bofors affair.

Destructive ways of
the IMF
by Bharat Jhunjhunwala
WE are told by the IMF, and the World Bank and their second-tier institutions like the Asian Development Bank that foreign investment will work as a catalyst in the domestic economy.

Murder at home, assassins abroad
Justice at a standstill
SHIMLA: When will the trial of the sensational triple murder of Mr Chhabil Dass, a former Advocate-General of Himachal Pradesh, his wife Saroj Bala and aunt Jagdamba Devi begin? You address this question to any police officer of Shimla. He will throw a broad and pleasant smile and say: “Difficult to answer.” And rightly so.

Of cuts, kind and unkind
by K. Rajbir Deswal
CAN there be a “kind cut” and a “friendly injury”? Yes, we cops, and doctors too, know them. But for a common man, it is really difficult to even comprehend what these two terms mean.

75 Years Ago

Civil Justice Committee
Evidence at Lahore
THE Civil Justice Committee examined three more witnesses today in the Council Chamber. The first two were officials, who are dealing with the civil suits at present while the third one was a non-official gentleman of Amritsar.

Kargil sets the pace

THE increasing disquiet across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir is primarily the result of the troubles Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is facing at home. Ms Benazir Bhutto is leading what she calls a "jehad against the present autocracy". The Press is angry and the majority of the people are facing an unusually tough time in respect of the availability of essential commodities. The industrial situation has worsened. Even the judiciary does not find itself in a state in which the dispensation of justice can remain uninfluenced by internecine political feuds. Afghanistan has ceased to be a diversionary factor. The only way to drown the discontent of the citizens is to increase the tempo of the proxy war in India's troubled northern state. Since Sunday, the Pakistani troops have shelled several Indian positions in the Kargil sector of the frontier region of Ladakh. Kargil town has suffered considerable loss in terms of life and property. (Two days ago, there was a calculated attack on an ammunition dump.) Shells continue to pound the countryside. These are not skirmishes. These are artillery assaults. Remember the 1997 attack by Pakistani troops in the same area? This time the scale of aggression has become larger. It is necessary to note that the highway is being targeted fiercely. The construction work on the bypass road has to be speeded up and the districts of Baramula and Kupwara have to be provided greater security in accordance with their need. More than a dozen civilians were killed in Kargil on a single day. The number of those injured is agonisingly high. The Pakistanis are trying to damage the Srinagar-Ladakh road to snap the supply line to forward positions. Attempts at helping militants to enter sensitive Indian suburban areas have been foiled by the new dispensation of round-the-clock vigil. It is unlikely that many more soldiers will succumb to Pakistani violence now. The ones whose bodies were found recently showed the desire to trust the tranquil element in the dialogue between the commanders on both sides. Finding the Kargil belt seared with heavy-weapon scars, the defenders of Indian borders have rightly employed heavy and powerful guns with a long reach. The destruction such arms can cause to Pakistani positions in the occupied territory can be immense. Since Pakistan does not reduce the severity of its assault, a proactive reply has to be given to every warlike move without let or hindrance. Confidence cannot be built by bombshells. There is an element of self-destruction in Pakistani moves to rouse anti-India sentiments among the Pakistani people. When Mr I.K. Gujral and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee initiated concrete steps to pave the way for peaceful neighbourly relations, they often felt happy about the limited triumph of well-intended diplomacy. But they have forgotten on crucial occasions that success is a journey and not a destination. Pakistan-watchers have predicted the intensification of technologically upgraded aggression in September and October. If the silencing reply given to the Pakistani troops from Kargil, Uri, Baramula and Kupwara is any indication, a determined phase of action has begun on the Indian side. Here is a word of advice for politicians in charge of military affairs: "Before you judge your neighbour, please walk at least a mile in his moccasins."

Stock market smiling again

POLITICS is going through a painful process of regrouping. Economics, however, is casting off its two-year-old lethargy and moving up in a brisk way. Stock markets across the country are flashing unmistakable signs of buoyancy and bounce. And unlike in the past, this time around the bull run, as market men call this phase, is likely to last long thanks to several factors. Though the market regulator, SEBI, has not fully neutralised the 20-odd big time speculators who run the Bombay Stock Exchange, the biggest in the country, as their fief, it has given enough indications that it would crack down, as it did in the case of former BSE president J.C.Parikh. That has had a salutary effect on small fries and the mood right now is to remain on the right side of regulations. This is the chief reason why bear pressure has ceased to be so severe or sustained as has been the case in the past. Then there is clear evidence of economic recovery and a smart increase in the collection of excise duty. Industrial turnover is up but profits are down thanks to high interest rates. In March exports went up, growth touching double figures. Above all, there is the record rabi crop, taking the foodgrains production beyond the magical 200 million tonne-mark. The resultant increase in rural purchasing power should give a push to fast moving consumer goods, strengthening the revival impulse in the economy.

All these factors do not explain the dramatic rise in the sensex, up by about 425 points or 15 per cent in three days. The biggest contributor to the stock market rally is the well-known fact that share prices in India are highly undervalued, in many cases even those of bluechip companies are traded at half their book value. This powerful cause remained inert during the long bear hold, but has surfaced strongly right now. Coupled with improvement in economic health, Indian stocks hold great attraction. Western investors, particularly pension and hedge funds, are flush with money and looking for profitable places to park them. India competes honourably with other Asian markets and there has been a steady influx of dollars; in April alone $225 million or Rs 1000 crore came in. Analysts believe that this will continue as well the heavy purchase by mutual funds. With buying interest remaining intact, prices can go in only one direction — up. There is talk of the sensex touching 4000 points within a few months; the more optimistic ones talk of a steep climb to 7000 points by the end of 2000. Even at 3825 points the stocks in the BSE have cumulatively gained nearly Rs 60,000 crore during the last few days, wiping out the earlier loss of Rs 40,000 crore. It was this amount that Mr Vajpayee talked of in his television address. Is there a political link to the stock market surge? Yes, say some experts. A caretaker government cannot take any major decision and hence there is absolutely no threat of a negative policy adding to business worries. Nor can individual politicians issue inane threats causing mirth in some quarters and fear in others. It is obvious that politicians are the best loved lot, whatever the reason.

Hope for Muslim women

THE right to maintenance granted by the judiciary in the famous Shah Bano case was considerably diluted by Rajiv Gandhi through the introduction of the Muslim Women’s (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The retrograde law was implemented primarily to appease Muslim fundamentalists as part of an ill-conceived vote bank politics. Mr Arif Mohammad Khan was the only Muslim leader in the Congress to leave the party as an expression of displeasure over Rajiv Gandhi’s anti-women policies. As subsequent events showed Muslim fundamentalists did extract their pound of flesh but still deserted the Congress in favour of a new political formation represented by Mr V.P. Singh. However, as far as Muslim women were concerned, the new law once again placed them at the mercy of their husbands in the event of divorce. Nearly 13 years after the retrograde law was passed, there may be some good news for divorced Muslim women fighting for an adequate amount as maintenance from their former husbands. The Bombay High Court has reinterpreted an important clause of the existing Act to provide some hope of a secure future to an illiterate and poor Jaitunbi Sheikh, deserted in 1979 and divorced in October, 1986 — the year Rajiv Gandhi introduced the anti-Muslim women law. The provisions of Section (1) (A) were uptil now interpreted in favour of the husband whose maintenance liability was presumed to be automatically over after the mandatory period of “iddat” which ended after three lunar months.

The Bombay High Court has in effect “reinvented” the provisions by stating that the Section in question actually puts an important obligation on the husband to make arrangements for the secure future of the divorced wife within the “iddat” period of three months. Of course, the fundamentalists are not happy with the interpretation of the Bombay High Court and they may even urge the former husband of Jaitunbi to challenge it in the Supreme Court. As of today, the high court has directed the lower judiciary concerned to work out by December the amount of money to be given to Jaitunbi by her former husband from the date of divorce in 1986. To be fair, the verdict, as reported, suffers from several infirmities. Just two questions. What yardstick the courts would henceforth apply to work out the lifelong compensation package for the divorced wife to be paid by her former husband within the “iddat” period of three months? And, would the woman be entitled to retain the amount she receives as “full and final settlement for her entire future” from her former husband even after she remarries at the expiry of the “iddat” period? What the Indian Muslim women need is a set of fresh and progressive legislation to undo the damage caused by the 1986 Act. The Bombay High Court has, at best, provided a ray of hope which may not last, unless the full verdict has much more to say on the subject.

BOFORS TO THE FORE AGAIN
Solanki’s shocking role
by Inder Malhotra

THERE are two ways of looking at the Vajpayee government’s decision to prosecute a former Congress External Affairs Minister, Mr Madhavsinh Solanki, for his intriguing role in the apparently unending Bofors affair. One, that the resolve hasn’t come a day too soon; the other, that the decision is driven by political motivation and might not have been taken at all if the BJP-led government hadn’t fallen and fresh elections ordered. Ironically, both views seem valid even though they are diametrically opposed to each other.

About the political motivation of the BJP there can be little doubt. For 13 long months — let’s not forget that in politics even a week is a long time — the whole matter had lain before Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and his colleagues and allies. They didn’t move a little finger to bring the “guilty men of Bofors” to the book.

It is no good for any defender or apologist of the saffron camp to argue that previous governments had been similarly inactive about Bofors for years on end. Surely, it was unrealistic to expect the government of Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao to take any action against any Bofors suspect, leave alone Mr Solanki. The subsequent governments of Mr Deve Gowda and Mr Inder Kumar Gujral were totally dependent for their existence on the oxygen of the Congress’ support “from outside”, and therefore paralysed on Bofors.

The BJP government was not only different but also deeply committed to carry on a crusade against “bhrashtachar” (corruption). It may had “compulsions” to go out of its way to protect Ms Jayalalitha from the numerous and serious cases of corruption against her. But surely it was under no such constraint regarding Bofors. Nor can anyone claim that Mr Solanki’s prosecution was delayed because the necessary sanction from the President was not received in good time.

The truth is stark and telling. The file to seek the President’s approval for a former minister’s prosecution was sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan only at the time when the Vajpayee government, after losing its majority in the Lok Sabha, also mustered enough determination or courage to prosecute the Defence Secretary at the time of the Bofors deal, Mr S.K. Bhatnagar.

No wonder then that in the highly polarised and inflamed atmosphere it is generally believed that the decision to bring the Bofors issue to the fore is connected with the BJP’s grand strategy of making Mrs Sonia Gandhi the main target of its attack. Whatever Mr Vajpayee’s views, the Hindutva hardliners have already made Mrs Gandhi’s Italian origin their main plank of assault.

The arraignment in a court of law of Mr Solanki on the one hand and of Mr Ottavio Quattrocchi, a family friend of the Gandhis, on the other, would surely add to the punch packed in by the BJP-led forces into their anti-Sonia campaign. R.K. Laxman’s cartoon, depicting the Bofors issue as a “pre-historic monster” being let loose on the Congress, says it all.However, all this and more having been said, the fact also remains that if anything is to be done about the canker of corruption in the Indian body politic it is better late than never. Let the right thing be done for wrong reasons rather than not at all. But even here a qualification is needed.

To launch a series of prosecutions in connection with the Bofors “kickbacks” is one thing. To pursue these cases is quite another. It is no accident that not only in this country but also all over the Indian subcontinent dozens of cases of corruption are launched against the high and mighty in politics, and until six weeks ago not a single case has ever ended in conviction. To Ms Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan goes the rare but dubious distinction of being the first prominent political leader, and a former Prime Minister to boot, to be sentenced to prison and disqualification for holding public office.

She continues to be outside her country, and in case she returns home, would almost certainly appeal against the Ehtsab (Accountability) Court’s verdict. But that is a separate matter. The pertinent point is that in India, where flagrant corruption on a mindboggling scale has become the nation’s name, none of the high-profile looters and freebooters has ever been meted out his just deserts.

It is against this bleak backdrop that some of the puzzling and complex features of the sordid Bofors saga need to be examined. The first and foremost of these is that bribes to the tune of Rs 64 crore were indubitably paid for the purchase of the Bofors fieldgun in spite of the ostentatious abolition of “middle men” in defence deals by the Rajiv Gandhi government.

Secondly, while emphatically denying that either he or any other member of his family or anyone close to him had benefited from the Bofors deal, Rajiv, all through, gave the impression that he had something to hide. He and his best friend, Mr Arun Singh, then Minister of State for Defence, fell out because of Rajiv’s refusal to threaten the cancellation of the deal to “force” Bofors fully to reveal the names of those who had taken Bofors money.

Thirdly, the Bofors scandal doubtless contributed to Rajiv Gandhi’s defeat in the 1989 general election, and Mr V.P. Singh’s rise to power. While Rajiv’s reluctance to disentangle the Bofors mystery was understandable, Mr Singh’s declaration that within 15 days of assuming power he would expose and punish the guilty men of Bofors was nothing but an empty boast.

In the event Mr V.P. Singh remained in power for 11 months, but nothing about Bofors bribes was revealed, nor was anyone proceeded against. There was no let-up in the very high decibel noise on the subject. However, week after week, month after month, sensational disclosures were promised. But none ever materialised.

In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that well before Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination Bofors had become something like King Charles’ head that makes its appearance at moments of political strife and then disappears for long intervals. For instance, it is no secret that whenever the wily Mr Narasimha Rao felt to be “under pressure” from 10, Janpath, he would instigate Mr V.C. Shukla (who else?) to start throwing dark hints about “progress” in the Bofors case.

With the BJP and other parties bitterly opposed to the Congress and even more to the “dynasty”, it was an article of faith that Bofors would be enough of a deterrent to Mrs Sonia Gandhi from plunging into politics. She surprised everyone by jumping into fray during the 1998 elections and then stunned friends and foes alike by ousting Mr Sitaram Kesri and taking over the reins of the Congress party. She told her opponents to “bring out into the open” whatever they had about Bofors. The BJP has nearly six months to respond to that challenge.

Three other points need to be made though this will have to be done tersely. First, Mr Solanki’s case is different from that of those who have got the lotely lolly from the Swedish firm. No one has accused him of any financial gain. But what he did was disgraceful and for that he should have been brought to book long ago. Instead, Mr Narasimha Rao and others, to their discredit, swallowed the ridiculous lie that the former External Affairs Minister does not remember the name of the lawyer who gave him a note which Mr Solanki duly delivered to the Swedish Foreign Minister. He pretends that he does not know the note’s contents. The wide world knows it advised the Swedes to “go slow” on Bofors investigations.

Secondly, Mr Quattrocchi is not the only one alleged to be a beneficiary of the Bofors money. So are the Hinduja brothers. But nobody says a word about them.

Thirdly and finally, utterly shameful though the Bofors scandal, is worse things have happened. The urea scam, in which close relatives of Mr Narasimha Rao are alleged to be involved, is twice as large as the Bofors bribes. Bofors at least delivered the guns which have served the Army well. An amount of Rs 133 crore was despatched to international crooks for urea, but not a flake of which has yet arrived in this country. Nor a penny of the loot has been recovered.

Of cuts, kind and unkind
by K. Rajbir Deswal

CAN there be a “kind cut” and a “friendly injury”? Yes, we cops, and doctors too, know them. But for a common man, it is really difficult to even comprehend what these two terms mean.

Let me explain. A kind cut is always from an enemy but an unkind one is from a friend. Remember Julius Caesar, when the well beloved Brutus stabbed him? That was “the most unkindest cut of all...!” Hindu scriptures abound in instances when a satanic hero, the wrongdoer, is killed by the Avtars and is thus redeemed in poetic justice and liberated in matters of salvation.

About the unkind cut, I will dwell upon later in this piece but before that a friendly injury deserves “treatment”. Well, this one gets inflicted on its own, when you have your little finger chopped off, to be in line with those seeking martyrdom (apologies for the literal translation of “Ungli katake naam shaheedon mein likhana”)

There is yet another nuance (?). If you want to make an equal or stronger case against your detractors, you get this injury with the help of a doctor for the assistance of a cop. Understandably you will have to first “invoke” an itch on the palms of both of these arbitrators and then grease them. The “doctored” injury thus “polices” your adversary and earns for itself the veritable status due to a “friendly injury”.

And now about the unkind cut. A widowed mother in her forties with the active aid and assistance of her paramours, gets her 19-year-old son liquidated, since the latter had threatened her. The victim is transported on a two wheeler about 20 kilometres, and his body is thrown in a sugarcane field.

The entire episode did not disturb me since cops and doctors after seeing the bodies almost daily are said to have overpowered what is known as the vaso-vagal attack or syncopy-temporary loss of consciousness on seeing blood and wounds. The burnt skin of the foot of the victim which had kept dragging on the metalled road shook me to the core.

I asked the reason from a knowledgeable friend. He informed me that since I probed the burnt skin aspect and came to know the mode of execution of the darkest designs in lecherous human’s scheme of things, hence the prick in the conscience. Even with persons who witness bloody scenes very often, certain still unusual revelations disturb their “boldness”.

Another instance I remember is that of my brother-in-law being on his deathbed due to kidney failure. My nephew with a village-doctor was attending on him in the night. The last-minute efforts of the doctor to locate the veins did not yield any results. He asked my nephew to bring a blade.

He gave an incision on the lower portion of the leg near the ankles called venesection in medical parlance. No blood oozed out. No vein was found. The wound was all white. My brother-in-law died. My nephew was in a state of shock at the death of his father but in a fit he screamed and screamed, almost tearing his vocal chords, “No blood uncle, no blood!” Poor boy had seen only blood oozing out from wounds all those small number of years in his life and a white wound sans blood was a strange sight to him.

Sorry, readers, for all that blood and gore in the narration but the truth of life lies well tucked in the bodies of living beings. Unkind or kind cuts only bring the reality of life to surface. Human beings can safely blame this on bestiality.

A wound with blood and flesh throbs with life, maybe coming to an end, but a white wound nauseates, may be this is a strange sight. Kind or unkind, a cut is a cut; a cut above all.

Destructive ways of the IMF
by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

WE are told by the IMF, and the World Bank and their second-tier institutions like the Asian Development Bank that foreign investment will work as a catalyst in the domestic economy. It will supplement the efforts of domestic capital, not compete with it. Unfortunately that is only doublespeak. Once a country has adopted a foreign-investment-led-strategy, these institutions see to it that domestic business is killed and the country is left entirely to the mercy of foreign capital.

The ADB has reviewed the East Asian crisis in its recent “Asian Development Outlook 1999”. It has raised the question whether the IMF’s policy of asking the Asian countries to pursue a tight monetary and fiscal policy may have been responsible for the deepening of the crisis. There are arguments on either side. But they can be better appreciated once we see them in the light of domestic versus foreign investors.

Tight monetary and fiscal policy implies that inflation is likely to remain under control. If a government were to continue printing notes, there would be too much money chasing the same amount of goods, and prices would shoot up. Domestic inflation would bring forth a corresponding depreciation of the home currency. A tight policy would lead to the stabilisation of their currency.

The impact of this policy on foreign and domestic investors is entirely different. This can be gauged in terms of three factors: exchange rates, interest rates and domestic demand.

The foreign investor is more concerned with exchange rate stability, for example, say, the Ford Motor Co makes a billion dollar investment in India. That is equal to, say, Rs 45 billion at the exchange rate of Rs 45 to a dollar. Then the rupee depreciates, say, to Rs 90 a dollar. Now the investment of Rs 45 billion is worth only half a billion dollars.

Tight monetary policy means less printing of notes by the government, less inflation and less chances of depreciation. It is beneficial to the foreign investors. A strong domestic currency does not beget domestic investors any such advantage because their purchases, sales, investment and debt are all largely denominated in domestic currency.

Governments have to raise interest rates as part of a tight policy. The high interest rates lead to an increased interest burden on domestic borrowing. The demand for their production of iron and cement, say in the construction of roads, also declines. Such an increase in domestic interest rates is of less importance to foreign investors because they have access to low-interest foreign lending. They are also more export-oriented and less dependent on government contracts as domestic business. As a consequence, a tight economic policy hits at domestic investors and favours those of the foreign variety.

The IMF pushed these countries towards a tight policy in the hope of wooing back foreign investors. Putting all one’s eggs in the foreign investors’ basket was fraught with risks. The tight policy would cut domestic investment with certainty. But whether the confidence of foreign investors would be restored and they would come back would remain uncertain. Should such a change of sentiment not take place, as indeed it did not, then tight policy becomes entirely counterproductive. Domestic public investment does not take place due to a tight policy, domestic private investment does not take place due to high interest rates, and foreign investment does not come because “sentiment” remains unfavourable. This is what explains the continued difficulties of the erstwhile Asian Tigers.

The impact of an expansionary policy would have been entirely different. Inflation would have increased and the domestic currency would have to be devalued. This devaluation would hit at foreign investors directly. This would make the “environment” unfavourable for the foreign investors but not for domestic investors. Inflation is not all that bad. World Bank economist Stiglitz has pointed out that inflation of up to 40 per cent does not destabilise the domestic investment. In fact, increased public expenditures pull up domestic private investment with the bootstraps. The expansionary policy also implies low rates of interest which favours domestic businesses. This is what the IMF should have done. Let domestic investment take over where foreign investment has left. Alas that was not to be.

The ADB gives three further counter-arguments against an expansionary policy. One, that it will lead to an increase of foreign debt. This is not quite true. The real value of debt remains unchanged.

Two, the ADB says that a crisis ridden country would need foreign exchange for meeting the demands of capital flight. Therefore, they should reduce their domestic demand and imports to conserve forex earnings for flight. But why not let the foreign investors lose more money?

Three, the ADB says that domestic governments need funds for bailing out their banks and cannot fritter it away in other public expenditures. Why not let the banks go bust instead? Let the foreign investors, which have lent heavily and abetted the profligate spending, share part of the losses.

Awaiting Judgement

Murder at home, assassins abroad
Justice at a standstill

SHIMLA: When will the trial of the sensational triple murder of Mr Chhabil Dass, a former Advocate-General of Himachal Pradesh, his wife Saroj Bala and aunt Jagdamba Devi begin? You address this question to any police officer of Shimla. He will throw a broad and pleasant smile and say: “Difficult to answer.” And rightly so.

The reason? The absence of an extradition treaty between India and Nepal. The efforts of the Shimla police for the past more than three and a half years to prosecute two Nepali nationals allegedly involved in the gruesome crime have resultantly come to a naught.

Showing a bunch of letters that the civil and police authorities have shot off to the Union Home and External Affairs Ministries, besides the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, the new S.P. of Shimla, Mr O.C. Thakur, says they have strained every nerve to get the suspects extradited to India so that they could be prosecuted according to our laws. The Union government has so far, however, failed to prevail upon its counterpart in Nepal to extradite them. “In these circumstances what can we do?” he asks, and adds: “We have to keep our fingers crossed until some solution is hammered out.”

The night between September 23 and 24, 1995, was an occasion of festivity for Mrs and Mr Chhabil Dass. And for good reason. Their son Sanjay was coming to India from the USA after getting married. They were planning to arrange a rousing reception for the newly weds, without knowing what was in store for them before the break of dawn. Mid-night past, their two Nepali servants, Himal and Satin, clubbed Mr Chhabil Dass, his wife and aunt to death with a hammer and an iron rod. They also attempted to strangulate their two-year-old grand-daughter, Gudia, and threw her in a bathroom. She survived by providential grace. Sanjay landed in India with his bride only to light the pyres of his parents .

After committing the triple murder, Himal and Satin ransacked the house and decamped with huge cash, jewellery and other valuable articles. Later they were seen by one Mr Shyam Goel, a frequent visitor to the house of Mr Chhabil Dass, fleeing Shimla by boarding a bus in the early hours of the morning.

The next day Jagan Nath, clerk, and Anand Sharma, advocate, who worked in the office of the slain Advocate-General, reached his house around 10.30 a.m. They saw some clients waiting for Mr Chhabil Dass in his office housed in the front room of his house. They went inside the house to inform him, but were surprised to see him lying in bed so late in the day. At first they tried to wake him up. He did not respond. They removed the blanket covering him and found him dead, with multiple injuries on his face.

Horrified, Jagan Nath and Sharma shouted: “Bibi Ji, Bibi Ji”, thinking that his wife would be around . When she, too, did not respond, they went to the adjoining room and saw her also lying under a quilt with the little grand-daughter weeping profusely and crying: “Chhotu Ne Mare Hai, Chhotu Ne Mare Hai.” (Chhotu was Satin’s nick name).

On removing the quilt, they observed that she too had multiple injuries on her face and was no more. Both Jagan Nath and Sharma were stunned and called the Nepali servants. They found that the servants had already disappeared from the house. This created a suspicion that the triple murder was their handiwork.

Mr Chhabil Dass was in his mid sixties and was “quite a weak man”, says a report prepared by the former S.P. of Shimla, Mr S.R. Murdi. His aunt Jagdamba Devi was in her mid-seventies. His wife too, though in her mid-fifties, did not enjoy good health. All the three were dependent on the servants who had free access to each corner of the house and knew what was lying where.

Jagan Nath lifted Gudia, while Sharma went to the reporting room nearby to inform the police about the ghastly incident. A police party reached the spot within no time. During a search of the house the police noted that Jagdamba Devi, lying in a separate room, had also been killed in the same manner. The police took finger prints of the suspects, collected blood-stained shoes, the mattress, the iron rod and hammer and registered a case under Sections 302,392 and 381, IPC.

They also took Gudia to the Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, and got her medically examined. Dr D.R. Sharma, Casualty Medical Officer at the hospital, opined in his report: “Small abrasion on upper eyelid right side, three abrasions below right lid linear, four linear abrasions right side 1 inch in length to 4 cm linear distance shown in line, multiple abrasions small size resembling tip of nail, multiple abrasions on left side of face and cheeks. Multiple abrasion on neck, few linear resembling the shape of nail tip, all injuries light brown, neck on the frontal aspect is congested with finger tips.”

By the time the police completed its medico-legal formalities, Himal and Satin had crossed over to Nepal.

The young A.S.P. of Shimla, Mrs Satwant Atwal Trivedi, asserts that there was no slackening of effort on the part of the Himachal Police to arrest the assassins. She maintains that a police party led by another A.S.P., Mr Anurag Garg, was despatched to Nepal in February, 1996, to arrest them . A son of the deceased Advocate-General also accompanied the police team.

Mrs Trivedi reveals the many hurdles the police party faced. First, it had to cool its heels on the Indo-Nepal border for several days as it was denied entry. Later, the Nepal government officials were in no mood to buy their version that Himal and Satin were involved in the murder. They were convinced only after the son of Mr Chhabil Dass made a statement that his father had been killed by the two Nepalis.

The Nepali police, she adds, registered a fresh case against the assassins according to its law and arrested Himal. Satin continues to be at large. The Himachal Police had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for any clue that could lead to his arrest, but to no avail. During the interregnum the state government repeatedly took up the matter of extradition of Himal and Satin (who is also suspected to be in Nepal) both with the Union Home and External Affairs Ministries, and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu . Only to be informed on April 30,1997, by the Embassy: “Under the existing Extradition Act in Nepal, Nepalese citizens accused of committing crimes in India cannot be extradited to India. They have to be tried in Nepal under the Nepalese law once a special court designated by the HMGN established that a prima facie case exists ”.

“Since the initiation of formal extradition proceedings would require the regular presence of your investigative personnel in Nepal,” the Embassy said, “legal assistance from local experts, etc, you may like to examine the logistical and financial aspects at your end. You may also wish to consult the Ministry of External Affairs from the political angle. We are also taking up the matter with the Ministries of External Affairs and Home, Government of India.”

The Embassy added: “We would, in the meantime, continue to pursue the matter with the authorities concerned in His Majesty’s Government of Nepal for early apprehension of the accused ( Satin) and initiation of legal proceedings against them in Nepal.”

On September 25,1997, Mr S.N. Verma, Home Secretary of the state government wrote a letter to Mr N Ravi, Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry, saying: “Before initiating the trial of the accused persons in Nepal, it is necessary to study the provisions of Nepalese Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Act so that investigation can be conducted and updated in accordance with these statutory provisions of Nepalese law. It is also necessary to find out whether the Prosecution Wing of Nepalese Government will conduct the trial of the Nepali nationals involved in the heinous triple murder, or the Government of India.”

He also sought clarification whether all the witnesses would be required to be sent to Kathmandu or their affidavits would suffice.

The last that the H.P. Financial Commissioner (Home) wrote to the Indian Embassy was on November 18,1997. In this letter he sought advice on how to proceed further for initiating the trial of the accused in Nepal. Since then there is no communication on record to show that the state government pursued the matter with the External Affairs Ministry or the Indian Embassy.

The S.P., Shimla, feels even if the Nepal Government agrees to set up a designated court, there will be several hindrances in the trial. The government official who will be sent to Nepal for assisting the court will, of course, be entitled to travelling and halting allowances. But there is no provision under the rules for meeting the expenses of private witnesses.

The grievance of Ankush, youngest son of Mr Chhabil Dass, is that his father was Advocate-General during the BJP regime headed by Mr Shanta Kumar. The present regime in the state is of the same political persuasion . And yet little has been done during the past about 17 months to prosecute the assassins of his father.

Visibly distraught, Ankush recalls: “When I went to meet Mr Virbhadra Singh, who headed the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, he was courteous. He not only gave me a sympathetic hearing but also persistently followed up the matter with the Union Government.”

A leading advocate in civil matters, Mr Chhabil Dass was soft-spoken and very helpful to members of his fraternity, especially to new entrants in the profession. No wonder he was popular both with the Bar and the Bench. Mr D.D. Sud, a senior advocate, who had worked in his chamber, says Mr Chhabil Dass was a great human being whose life had been ended in an inhuman manner by his own servants.

75 YEARS AGO

Civil Justice Committee
Evidence at Lahore

THE Civil Justice Committee examined three more witnesses today in the Council Chamber.

The first two were officials, who are dealing with the civil suits at present while the third one was a non-official gentleman of Amritsar.

The first witness of the day was Mr Ali Mohammed, Senior Sub-Judge, Gujranwala, who was examined at length for over two hours. In the course of his evidence, he stated that on January 21, 1924, about 140 cases were pending in his court, of which only 20 were more than one year old. There was, the witness admitted, a large amount of litigations for sums under Rs 10.

It was the direct outcome of small holdings of land in Punjab. The witness favoured the idea that the candidates for sub-judgeship should acquire some practical experience of the working of the judicial machinery before assuming the charge of their duties by holding contact with the subordinate judges for a short period.

Proceeding, the witness said that in some suits, the lists of witnesses were unduly prolonged by both the parties, though the evidence of most of them was of no material benefit to the dispute in hand. He was, therefore, of the opinion that the purpose for which each witness was called should specifically be stated in the lists submitted to the courts and that the courts should be given discretionary powers to dispense with the evidence of such witnesses as were deemed by them “useless”. The witness admitted the existence of touting in Punjab, which he said, undoubtedly retarded the expeditious disposal of disputes.