A sense of disquiet, as villagers await verdict

DHARMAPURI: Doddering old men in walking sticks. Two men incapable of climbing stairs remaining on the ground floor. One man walking with the help of his wife and sitting through the court session, unable to stand up. Vignettes like this might have made some wonder if the same men would have stormed into Vachathi village and launched a brutal attack on the tribal people and even mercilessly raped the women 19 years ago.  Though the ravages of time has taken a heavy toll on the 215 surviving accused — only some of them are still in government service — the wheels of justice did not stop to give a sympathetic stare on Thursday. Listening to the verdict with a stoic silence, the forest, police and revenue officials did not reveal any visible signs of despair. Their relatives showed expressions of shock and chagrin.It looked like the accused had prepared themselves to receive the sentence even as they trooped in with their lawyers and relatives to the court premises in Dharmapuri, though even till the last moment many of them were denying their involvement in the barbaric act.But the moment for which the people of Vachathi have been waiting, saw the villagers breaking into jubilation.  The police segregated the accused and their kin from the people of Vachathi, including the victims of the assault, and also screen all those who entered the court premises. As the accused and victims waited, a sense of unease was palpable.At 11 am the proceedings of the day began. All the 215 surviving accused were called inside the court hall. A court official read out the charges levelled against each accused, which dragged on till 2.10 pm. The verdict was delivered only after 3 pm. The four hours were torturous for some accused as they struggled to stand. Two of them, who had suffered paralytic attack, could not climb the stairs to the court hall on the second floor. So a clerk was ordered to read the judgment out to them as they lay on the ground floor.The security arrangements and the restricted entry into the court hall led to altercations between the villagers and police personnel. It was perhaps for the first time the Dharmapuri court premises saw such a huge congregation of media personnel and OB vans.