The acquittal of Shiv Sena men involved in 1992-93 riots in Bombay

[see 2 news report below re the acquittal of Shiva Sena activists for their role in the 1992-93 riots]

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NDTV.COM

Sena activists acquitted in 1992-93 riots case

Press Trust of India
Friday, May 9, 2008 (Mumbai)
The special riots court on Saturday acquitted Shiv Sena MLA Gajanand Kirtikar, Shiv Sena corporator and member of the standing committee of the BMC Ravindra Waikar along with 18 other Shiv Sena activists and supporters, for lack of evidence.

Kirtikar, Waikar and others were accused of instigating violence and being part of an unlawful assembly during the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai. A case against them was registered in the year 2000 by the Jogeshwari police.

Magistrate R C Bapat Sarkar acquitted the 20 accused due to lack of evidence and after the statement of the investigating police officer failed to support the case of the prosecution.

According to the prosecution, Kirtikar and other Shiv Sena leaders took out a march on December seven, 1992 and allegedly pelted stones outside a mosque in Jogeshwari, a north western suburb in Mumbai.

When the police stopped the march, Kirtikar and Waikar led the supporters to the police station where they allegedly misbehaved with the police officers. The police, instead of registering the offence, immediately made an entry in the station diary about the incidence.

However, the police could not produce the diary before the court reasoning that the diary had been lost in the span of 16 years. Based on this, the court acquitted all the accused due to insufficient evidence against them, advocate Jaiprakash Bagoria appearing for Kirtikar said.

''We have been falsely implicated in this case by the Congress government, who did it to pacify their Muslim voting bank,'' Waikar said after he was acquitted by the court.

He added that when the special riots court was set up and several riots cases were reopened, not a single case was made against any Congress activist or leader. ''We went there only to pacify the crowd but instead we were charged. The Congress tried to gain political mileage out of this,'' Waikar added.

According to Kirtikar, there was no evidence or witness against them and yet this case was dragged for 16 years only to insult us. ''There has been no wrong doing on the part of the Shiv Sena,'' he asserted.

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Six Sena men acquitted in '92 riots case

CNN-IBN

TimePublished on Fri, May 09, 2008 at 17:33, Updated at Fri, May 09, 2008 in Nation section


LET OFF: It is the first acquittal of Shiv Sena men in the 1992-93 Mumbai riots case.


Mumbai: In a big blow to the prosecution, the special riots court on Friday acquitted six Shiv Sena men including Sena MLA Gajanan Kirtikar and Corporator Ravindra Waikar who were charged of unlawful assembly and instigating violence during the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai.

It is the first acquittal of Shiv Sena men in the riots case.

In all 20 persons were acquitted by Magistrate RC Bapat Sarkar for lack of evidence and the failure of the investigating officer's statement failed to prove the prosecution's case.

The other Sena men who were accused Nandkumar Kale, Raghunath Kadam, Shridhar Khade and Laltaprasad Singh. Corporator Waikar currently heads the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Standing Committee.

A complaint had been filed against the 20 persons at suburban Jogeshwari police station on December 7, 1992, in connection with two different cases for unlawful assembly and instigating violence.

The six were booked under section 39 of Bombay Police Act (unlawful assembly), various sections of the Criminal Procedure Code for instigating violence and 153 (a) of the Indian Penal Code for the conspiracy.

So far there have been only two convictions while around 40 persons have been acquitted in the on going trial of the 1992-93 riots.

CNN-IBN Correspondent Toral Varia reports that the Special Task Force (STF), which is the prosecuting agency in the riots case, was set up in January 2000 by the Democratic Front government.

According to the STF's brief, it was to prosecute those found guilty by the Srikrishna Commission. But even after presenting all the evidences and cross-examining witnesses, 40 people have been acquitted and only two held guilty in the riots case.

The Srikrishna Commission had found guilty many Shiv Sena workers of being involved in the riots that took place after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

But with more and more people being acquitted, it seems that the STF has failed to build up a strong case.