Jessica Lal vs The Blackbuck

There were two important decisions that came out of the Indian courts last week.

Actor Salman Khan was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison and asked to pay a fine by a court in Jodhpur. The court found him guilty of killing two chinkaras or black bucks, a deer species, in '98.

And a Delhi Court acquitted Manu Sharma and Vikas Yadav, sons of Congress politicians along with other co-accused in the Jessica Lal murder case. Model Jessica Lal was shot at point blank range in April '99 while she was working as a celebrity bar maid in an elite restaurant.

And as expected there were strong and wide-ranging reactions to both these verdicts. But one reaction caught my attention. Preity Zinta and Marc Robinson were on a news channel talking about the Jessica Lal verdict. And what they said struck me as odd and interesting. It went something like this although the words are not exactly the same - "What sort of Judicial system is this that lets a cold-blooded murderer go scot-free and sentences someone for killing a deer? Isn't a human life more important than that of some animal? If some people can, quite literally, get away with murder, then Salman Khan should be let off as well!"

So isn't a human life more important than that of some animal? Ofcourse it is. A human life is much more important than that of some animal. And I admire Ms. Zinta and Mr. Robinson for having a strong opinion and airing it.

I hope and wish as much as they do that the case is reopened and the murderers of Jessica Lal are convicted and sentenced, whoever they are, even if they are sons of powerful and corrupt politicians.

But the problem I have is why are they linking the Jessica Lal case to the Salman Khan conviction. And here's where I don't agree with that argument. Its almost like they want to protect one of their own, a co-actor, in Salman Khan. "So what if he killed a deer" they say, "just let him go, because the same judicial system is letting a murderer go scot-free".

So now the blame seems to be on the judiciary, even the media is going full steam casting aspersions on our courts. Its the same judiciary that the media used to rave about until recently, that its the only system in our polity which is above all the corruption and the petty politics.

But what can a judge do when he is presented with a shabby investigation and hostile witnesses? From what I understand, realistically no judge could have convicted Manu Sharma or anyone else in the Jessica Lal trial based on the shoddy case built up by the prosecution. So who is to blame? It must be the Delhi police, their collusion with the powerful accused, politicians misusing their power, and so on.

But now the celebrity brigade has taken it upon themselves to be the moral authority and opportunistically misuse the situation to bat for Salman Khan. Its not about a deer, or just some animal. Its about a rare conviction amidst a sea of abysmal progress in cases related to wildlife poaching, hunting and environmental exploitation in our country. Its about the future of our fragile ecosystem. The rustic Bishnois understand this, but our much-idolized celebrities don't. And that's very sad.