Tragedy compounded

Supreme Court castigates Mumbai police for indiscri-minately framing, and a TADA judge for convicting, local Muslim youth in the killing of six Hindus from Radhabai Chawl during the January 1993 riots

The Supreme Court, on April 15, 1998 acquitted 11 persons who were earlier convicted of the murder of six Hindus in the Radhabai chawl case in the January 1993 riots. This was one of the two incidents used by Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, to justify his call for violence against Mumbai�s Muslims as "retaliation". No doubt, what has come to be known as the Radhabai Chawl case was among the most shocking instances of the depth to which human beings could descend when consumed by hatred. The apex court�s ruling now highlights the callousness with which the police seems content to see some people hang for the crime of others.

The apex court came down heavily on the police, remarking in its 53�page verdict that "the investigating agency, merely on suspicion, had roped in innocent members belonging to the minority Muslim community...residing in the locality and then had tried somehow to get them identified through witnesses who belonged to the community of the victims who were burnt alive." The court also passed adverse comments against S.M. Deshmukh, additional sessions judge of the designated TADA court in Mumbai, who had convicted 11 innocent persons in the case on flimsy and unreliable evidence.

A bench comprising of justices G.N. Ray and G.B. Patnaik set aside an order of a special court in Mumbai convicting all these 11 Muslim youngsters for their involvement in the "undoubtedly ghastly" crime in which six Hindu persons were burnt alive. Their hutments had been set on fire on the night of January 7, 1993.

The Radhabai chawl case "exhibits the brutality with which the members of one community attacked members of another community at a point of time when people had been depraved of their sense of judgement and decency and when people had behaved like animals," the judges observed, adding, "Still more painful is the manner in which the prosecuting agency picked up indiscriminately people from one community as they were residing in the locality and booked them under different sections of the Penal Code and TADA".

The case exhibits not only the callousness on the part of the investigation agency and the "cavalier fashion" with which it proceeded, but also the "extent to which the judge has been swayed to record conviction without any legally admissible trustworthy evidence," noted the court, after examining the evidence and the deposition of witnesses.

On the night of January 7, 1993, nine Hindus from Gandhi chawl (popularly, but erroneously known an Radhabai chawl), a predominantly Muslim basti, were locked into a room which was then set on fire. Five of them � an elderly couple, Rajaram and Sulochana Bane, a mother and daughter, Kamlabai and Laxmi Batlu and a handicapped woman, Meenakshi Narkar, died on the spot. Vandana Todkar died on the way to hospital. Her two minor children, Sandeep and Sailesh and the Bane�s daughter, Naina, survived after sustaining severe burns.

Unfortunately the police�s inept and biased handling of the case, that included arresting 17 innocent boys (six had been acquitted by the special court itself) allowed those actually responsible for the crime, to go scot�free.

Some of the contradictions in the evidence:

Vandana and Naina both told the police that the incident took place at 2 a.m. This appears in the hand�written question�answer format in the police records. But in their typed statements the time was changed � in the case of Vandana, to between 12.30 and 12.45 and in Naina�s case, to sometime after 10 p.m.

Both Naina and Vandana said the attackers were �unknown persons.� But Vandana�s typed statement attributes the deed to �unknown Muslims.� Of the 16 eye�witnesses who gave evidence, three alleged that kerosene/petrol was poured not only on the Bane�s home but two other homes as well. The first six witnesses said that the assailants went away after they had made sure that the Bane�s home had been fully burnt. But later, six other witnesses declared that the assailants stood around shouting �Allah�o�Akbar� and fled only when they heard the police arrive.

The police, allegedly, did not arrest several people named by the eye-witnesses and survivors. Curiously, the survivors of this tragedy were not called upon to give evidence in court. The police claimed that Naina, who had since married and moved away was not traceable. Vandana�s children were deemed to be too young. The lower court judge held that it was the prosecution�s prerogative to decide who would be their witnesses.

 

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