Dilip 4

...2. Nature of crime. Probably this is something you disagree with, but more often than not the manner in which riots occur, lot of evidence gets destroyed. Reliance is greatly upon eyewitness accounts. Some of these accounts are motivated, too. If a witness turns hostile, their testimony becomes totally useless. Some testimonies would be nullified because another witness would contradict the first witness' testimony, etc. And under such circumstance, it would be truly difficult to determine which of the two mutually contradictory accounts is true. Some witnesses could be failing the cross-examination.

3. Lack of direct causation with crime. Very few grass roots level murderers are caught! The people we are holding responsible had probably played a very indirect role, but we know of them because they were at prominent positions. How many people must have Jagdish Tytler, Kamalnath or Sajjan Kumar killed with their own hands? To what extent can one hold responsible for deaths, those persons who had instigated grown up adults who had the option of not getting instigated & not killing? I've not consulted the relevant IPC sections, but a mere instigator's punishment must be significantly lighter than the one actually murdering. Probably this is what allows them to get away with lighter sentences. Of course, if the said instigator also provides murderers with weapons, etc., thus becoming a facilitator of crime, then punishment must be harsher, I guess.

4. Biases of those conducting investigations. This bias could be motivated by relationships, past favors, gratitude (for calling into service despite having retired!), promotions, etc. Biases could lead to attempts at guarding few people or on the other hand wrongful framing. These lacunae must be emerging during court proceedings, significantly reducing the reliability of committee in judges' eyes. Plus you might add to this the usual carelessness, lack of committment to one's job & lack of technology. Quite possibly, the media lets us know only that certain people were suspected but not whether court found the submitted evidence sufficient or not. In many cases if despite suspicion, sufficient evidence is not found, police or investigating agency would not file chargesheet against them as that would cause them embarrassment in the court....