Post-Babri Masjid demolition riots: SC gives split verdict; Mumbai court awards 3-month jail

By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,

New Delhi: Two courts of different status, two cases related to the nation-wide communal riots following the demolition of Babri Masjid, and two different verdicts, but what is similar is the time the procedure took: full 15 years.

On 3rd May the Supreme Court of India gave a split verdict on confirming the conviction of five persons accused of murder during the communal riots of 1992-1993 in Assam. As the two-judge bench comprising Justices S.B. Sinha and H.S. Bedi had different opinions, the matter has now been placed before the Chief Justice of India. The Chief Justice will refer the case to a larger bench.

According to Pioneer daily, Justice S.B. Sinha ordered the acquittal of the five convicted persons while Justice H.S. Bedi confirmed the life imprisonment imposed on the accused by a trial court. Justice Bedi also accused the police machinery of being “anti-minority.”

The five convicts were accused of committing the murder of Sahera Khatoon and her two minor daughters Bimala Khatoon (3) and Hazra Khatoon (7) at Changmazi Pathar village in Assam’s Daboka district. The incident took place on 14th December 1992. The Babri Masjid was demolished on 6th December 1992 by thousands of Hindu extremists in the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including L.K. Advani.

On the same 3rd May, in another case, a Mumbai special court convicted two persons for their involvement in the communal riot in Mumbai in 1993. The court took 15 years to award three-month imprisonment to the accused and thus to end the wait for justice by the Muslim victim couple. The accused, Naresh Kamble and Suresh Shah, have been convicted for assaulting and molesting the couple at Dharavi. They have been on bail for the last 15 years.

It was 2nd January 1993 when in the broad daylight near Dharavi Iftikhar and his wife Jubeen Damad were assaulted by an armed mob which the accused were part of. The couple had arrived here from neighbouring Raigad district to attend a relative's wedding at Vile Parle. The couple was travelling in an autorickshaw. They were stopped by the mob and the moment they knew the couple was from the minority community they dragged them out, thrashed and assaulted them with choppers and sticks.