Another government claim %u2014 that the crowd was armed %u2014 has also not been borne out by the ruling.
State advocate-general Balai Ray later said four women were raped on March 14. The judgment does not mention the four incidents but it has specified compensation for victims of rape. All payments should be made within a month from today.
A division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose said in the judgement that the intention of the police seemed %u201Cto be to crush the demonstration rather than to control or disperse an unlawful assembly%u201D.
%u201CAlso, the court does not accept that it is permissible to indiscriminately open fire to control the crowd%u2026. The firing cannot be justified under any provision of the law.%u201D
The judges said there was nothing to prove that the crowd was posing such a danger or threat to the police that the force had to open fire. There was %u201Cnot enough provocation%u201D.
They said confusion prevailed over who gave the order to open fire on a crowd that was unarmed. %u201CThe action of the police cannot be justified on the ground of sovereign immunity either.%u201D
In the preliminary report to the court, the CBI is learnt to have said the police had violated regulations and had opened fire not to scare away the crowd but to kill. The police should have first opened fire in the air and then shot at the legs instead of firing indiscriminately, the report has apparently said.
The court gave liberty to the CBI to register cases against the accused, in
