Punish the Guilty Murder by Cops Goes Unpunished
(Usman Suleman Bakery Incident)

On January 9, 1993, eight innocent persons were shot dead by a posse of the Bombay police headed by then Joint Commissioner of Police RD Tyagi. Tyagi was indicted by both the People’s Verdict and the officially appointed Justice BN Srikrishna Commission. In its report, the Commission observes that the version of the police does not inspire confidence (the police had tried to justify the firing on grounds that the victims had confronted the police); that the forensic report reveals that the victims were fleeing and shot in the back; the Commission upheld the evidence of the students and teachers of the Madrassas-e-Darul-Ulum Imdadiya and observed that the police had been trigger happy and used force utterly disproportionate to the occasion.

The residents of the Madrassa, including senior clerics had been assaulted. Maulana Huda who became key witness later, was hit on the forehead, he broke his finger, and falsely accused of harbouring weapons. He saw his colleagues being beaten as they protested their innocence; his senior being killed. Worse lay in store - those who survived the assault were taken to the police station, beaten again and charged with attempt to murder.

Tyagi, the policeman indicted was elevated to the post of Commissioner of Police, Mumbai by the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in October 1995 when it came to power. The trajectory of this case is a sorry comment on our criminal justice system. Tyagi was discharged by the High Court on April 16, 2003, the state of Maharashtra did not appeal the decision. Worse, the Supreme Court, on July 4, 2011, confirmed the decision of the Bombay high court and sessions court discharging former senior cop R D Tyagi and eight others in the Suleman Usman bakery firing case of 1993.
Five months later. On December 20, 2011 the sole surviving witness of this horrific incident, Maulana Nur ul Huda passed away in his village. Until 2001, when the Maharashtra government through its police had finally charge-sheeted Tyagi due to the pressure from activists, he had remained distant. Since 2001, he became the face of this struggle. He appealed the discharge of Tyagi by the Bombay High Court and appealed the decision in the Supreme Court. His words when deciding to appeal against Tyagi's discharge by the High Court remain etched in memory: "I want to show that we are not powerless, we too have guts. History will record that there were people who fought."