The story of Devinder Singh Bhullar, awaiting death penalty.

Put yourself in his shoes, and imagine the following:

You are a member of a minority community in India. You are a very bright student. You get an degree in Mechanical Engineering from one of the best schools of the time. You pursue your studies and get a Masters and Ph.D from one of the best universities in the country. You get a job at the same university and start planning your life. Then one day, out of no-where, cops come barging into your house and take away your father, your uncle and a friend. You go from pillar to post, to try to locate them. They are never found. You want to get justice and file a complaint in the court, and step forward as an eyewitness to this crime. You start getting threats from the police to withdraw your complaint, or else you will meet the same fate as your father. Undeterred, you keep fighting for your cause. Next thing you know is, that your name has suddenly appeared on the suspect list for two bombings, which you were not involved in. You somehow successfully leave the country and reach Germany. While you were in Germany, the cops kidnap and kill some more members of your family. Indian govt finally succeeds to get you extradited from Germany, by promising the German govt. that you will not be tortured or given a death penalty. Upon coming back to India, you are tortured to give a confession, and threatened that all of your family will be eliminated if you dont sign the papers. This confession is used against you to start a trial. However none of the eyewitnesses are able to recognize you, and the witness accounts do not match the language of the confession that the police got out of you. The police withdraw the confession, and the trial goes on. The bench of judges at the trial court gives a split decision. One judge acquits you, and two other give you death sentence. None of the other people charged for these crimes are ever convicted. You file for an appeal in the Supreme Court (The highest court in India). Again, there is a split decision. The Presiding Judge of the Supreme Court acquits you (he says not only you should not be hanged, but there is not enough evidence to convict you). The two other judges forward their decision to the President of India recommending him to act on the presiding judge's advice. The president lets you rot in the jail for 8 years, before deciding your appeal. Finally she IGNORES the presiding judge's advice and rejects your plea. You have been living the last 20 years in solitary confinement, with little contact with other human beings.

Meanwhile, another person named Kishori Lal (who belongs to the majority and killed dozens of people belonging to a minority community) is given death sentence in at least 3 cases, and life sentence in another 4. The Supreme Court converted his death sentence into a life sentence. After spending a few years in jail, the Govt. of India is now about to pardon him, and he will be on the streets in a few months.

Coming back to you, would you feel that justice has been served to you? Would you think that India is really a democracy as it claims to be? Or is it a country with two sets of laws, one for the majority and another for the minority?