SRIKRISHNA PANEL INDICTED SEVERAL POLITICIANS

A commission headed by Justice BN Srikrishna of the Bombay HC, appointed to probe the riots, submitted 800-page report in 1998 after examining over 500 witnesses.

The report indicted several politicians, including late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and several other leaders, for inciting people to participate in riots.

It indicted 31 policemen for participating in the riots, communal incidents or incidents of looting. RD Tyagi, a former joint commissioner of police (crime), was accused of opening fire along with eight other policemen at the famous Suleiman Usman Bakery that led to the death of nine persons. He later became Mumbai police commissioner.

In August 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the state government to file an affidavit over the implementation of the commission’s report.

According to the state government’s affidavit filed in January 2008, the police registered 2,267 cases. Around 1,371 cases were closed as “A Summary”, which means true but undetected.

In 2000, a Special Task Force was formed, as recommended by the panel.

Few years later around 112 cases were re-investigated and fresh charge sheets were filed in eight cases.

Police filed nine cases against Thackeray and ‘Saamana’, Sena mouthpiece, for provocative writings. In four cases, charges were not framed and Thackeray, along with others, was discharged on October 18, 1996. In other two cases, he was acquitted on October 2, 1996.