No witness protection

Four years down the line since the violence at Ramu, we find that only 1 out of 18 cases has seen some progress. The problem lies in the fact that many witnesses fear to give deposition in a court of law out of fear of retribution by guilty parties, as there is no set system for providing security to witnesses. With 17 cases yet to start proceedings, the fear amongst the Buddhist community is that the communal violence around Ramu in 2012 is unwittingly being relegated to history. That is not the only problem; there is also contention that some principal suspects in the violence have been left out of the cases altogether.

When people find that there is no progress on probe reports submitted to the High Court by a judiciary body, the police and home ministry, it is natural for the members of the minority Buddhist community to be apprehensive about whether the cases are being sidelined. But why is this so? The initial probe conducted squarely found dereliction of duty by the officer in charge of Ramu station and the involvement of more than 200 people who had pre-planned the mayhem. All in all, it is not the most conducive of situations and the prosecution is having a tough time convincing witnesses to come forward. Yet, it is imperative that the Ramu incident be investigated and those responsible be brought to justice in the interest of communal harmony. Failure to do so would be giving entirely the wrong signal to communal forces and undermining the secular character of the State.