Selective Justice, 92 Mumbai riots: No action on Srikrishna report

Mumbai: While sentencing in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case almost comes to an end, questions are being raised about the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report, which inquired about the communal riots that took place two months before the bombings.

"There can be no greater form of selective justice that on the one hand you punish the bombers. But let the those who perpetrated the riots have not been brought to justice,” says editor of Hindustan, Sarfaraz Aarzoo.

Over 900 people were killed in the two rounds of rioting in December 1992 and in January 1993. In fact the Srikrishna Report named several prominent figures who had co-ordinated the carnage.

"They include the former Joint Commissioner R D Tyagi, Madhukar Sarpotdar the then MLA, the Mayor of Mumbai and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray,” says Counsel for Riot Victims, Srikrishna Commission, Niloufer Bhagwat.

But successive governments have let the report gather dust. Only one of the 31 policemen who allegedly participated in the riots has been suspended. Also sub-Inspector Nikhil Kapse who was found guilty of killing six innocent Muslims was promoted. The Army had allegedly found unlicensed guns in the possession the then Shiv Sena MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar, who could have been charged under TADA, but he wasn’t.

However, veteran Police officers say it's unfair to compare convictions rates in the blasts with the riots simply because collecting evidence to prosecute rioters is very difficult.

"You see the law needs hard evidence not presumption, or extrapolation, and its very difficult to get that,” says former Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Y C Pawar.

But activists argue it's not evidence but the lack of political will that has let the guilty slip through setting a dangerous precedent.

"The message we are sending is very dangerous that there is no equality in our justice system, and those who can perpetrate these mass murders can get away is really shocking,” says Teesta Setalvad of Communalism Combat.

(With inouts from Divyamanu Chaudhuri in Delhi)

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/92-mumbai-riots-no-action-on-srikrishna-report/45768-3.html