A particular court docket has discovered three retired workers of the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO) responsible of utilizing casteist language in opposition to a safety guard at Hotel Mountview, Sector 10, in 2000.

Among the convicts, Praveen Goswami, 69, was a safety officer on the lodge, whereas Kulbhushan Sharma, 77, and Surinder Pal Singh, 76, efficiently held the put up of chief safety officer (CSO) on the time of the incident.

Found responsible underneath Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the accused will bear six months of rigorous imprisonment and pay a nice of 5,000 every.

The complainant, Ram Kumar of Indira Colony, Manimajra, had served within the army for 16 years earlier than becoming a member of CITCO as a safety guard.

On October 15, 2000, he was on patrolling responsibility at Hotel Mountview, when safety officer Praveen Goswami requested him to modify off a TV that was being watched by some company and workers.

As per the grievance, when Kumar shared with Goswami {that a} cricket match was on, the latter used casteist remarks in opposition to him and hurled abuses in entrance of different folks.

Kumar took the matter to Kulbhushan Sharma, the CSO on the time, who assured him of motion, however did not do something.

After Sharma retired, Surinder Pal Singh took over the place and pressured Kumar to withdraw the grievance.

Singh additionally made false complaints in opposition to Kumar, based mostly on which an inquiry was marked in opposition to him by the CITCO managing director and his providers had been terminated on January 19, 2005.

Kumar had additionally approached the Punjab and Haryana excessive court docket concerning this, the place proceedings within the current case had been quashed in opposition to Vijay Kumar Gupta, the then basic supervisor of Hotel Shivalikview, whereas the case was dedicated to the classes court docket for trial on March 3, 2014 .

In court docket, all three accused pleaded that they had been harmless. They claimed that Kumar was argumentative and impolite, and was faraway from service due to negligent behaviour.

Citing their age, additionally they pleaded about their well being points, the way it was their first offense and the way they’d been repeatedly attending the court docket proceedings.

The court docket noticed that there have been two predominant questions – whether or not the accused used derogatory language realizing Kumar’s caste standing and whether or not they criminally intimidated him.

Though the offense underneath Section 506 (legal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, as alleged by the complainant, was not proved, the trio was convicted underneath the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The court docket additionally took notice of the truth that all warning letters given to Kumar had been after the date of his preliminary grievance and it can’t be mentioned that he used his caste as a software to falsely implicate them.

Convicts plead leniency in outdated age, handed minimal sentence

Before the quantum of sentence was pronounced, Surinder Pal Singh, 76, mentioned his 70-year-old spouse shall be left on their own at residence they usually each had been affected by old-age illnesses.

Praveen Goswami, 69, mentioned he had been taking medicines for mind stroke and had been struggling with mind points after an accident on August 1, 2022.

Kulbushan Sharma, 77, additionally mentioned there was nobody at residence to take care of his 73-year-old spouse, whereas he himself was a coronary heart affected person.

However, the court docket noticed that contemplating the character and antecedents of the convicts, and the whole details and circumstances of the case, no floor was made out for taking a sympathetic and lenient view.

However, the court docket did take notice that the trio had been going through trial for greater than 12 years. As Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act entails imprisonment for a minimal six months, which can prolong to 5 years, the court docket awarded the minimal sentence for the offense.