Case of Nido's death : ST/SC Act dropped
No evidence of 'racial slur' : Trial Court
Source: The Sangai Express / Agencies

New Delhi, November 02 2014: In a setback to the CBI, a trial Court has dropped charges under the stringent SC/ST Act against the four adult accused in 19-year-old Nido Tania's death, saying the prosecution failed to establish that it was a case of "racial slur" .

"There is no evidence to show the victim was a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe," the Court said.

It also pulled up the probe agency for hiding crucial facts regarding Tania's death from the Court.

The four have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention under sections 304 and 34, respectively, of the IPC.

Proceedings against the three juveniles involved in the matter are being conducted by the Juvenile Justice Board.

A protest held then when news of the death of Nido spread all over

Had the accused been convicted for sections under the SC/ST Act, the punishment would have been nothing less than life imprisonment.

The public prosecutor had submitted that the fact that Tania was from Arunachal Pradesh was apparent from his features.

"The accused persons could imagine very well that he belonged to North East, which is an abode of Scheduled Tribes.

Making remarks against a person by calling him 'chinki', was meant to insult and induce him in the name of his origin/caste.

Hence, an offence under the special Act is made out," the prosecutor had said.

Additional sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri, however, rejected the claim that most people in North East belong to the SC/ST community and discharged the accused-Farman, Pawan, Sunder and Sunny Uppal under the provisions of the special law.

"I am unable to find out any provision of law, where all communities residing in North East are declared as Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes.

Even if the deceased belonged to any such caste, this fact was not known to any of the accused," the Judge said.

The Court reprimanded the prosecution for initially not filing certain documents in the Court.

It, however added that later those documents were filed by the agency.

"Reasons for withholding these documents from the Court are beyond my comprehension.

It is not clear if any manipulation has been done in the documents.

This is not even the plea of defence counsels.

However, a premier institution like CBI is not expected to be casual.

The act is highly condemnable," the Judge observed.

After framing of charges, the trial in the case has commenced recently and is likely to be conducted on a daily basis from this month.

Nido Tania, who had an altercation with a few shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar on January 29 this year, was found dead inside his house the next day.

Tania's death had evoked angry reactions from people of the North East living in the National capital who alleged police had failed to protect him.

Delhi Police, which was earlier probing the case, had slapped murder charges on the four adults accused in the case after Tania's postmortem revealed he died of head and facial injuries caused by a blunt object.

The case was transferred to CBI after Tania's parents met Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to demand speedy justice.