Riots and wrongs

The fire that raged in Radhabai Chawl five years ago has scarred the face of Mumbai police. Its disfigured features make it difficult for us...

The fire that raged in Radhabai Chawl five years ago has scarred the face of Mumbai police. Its disfigured features make it difficult for us now to distinguish it from the people who had gone to the chawl that night armed with kerosene cans, matchsticks and hatred.

They are still free – the people who had set a house on fire after locking a man, four women and a crippled girl inside. Eleven, of the 17 people the police had randomly rounded up after the incident, have all been let off by the Supreme Court for “lack of evidence” against them. Six were acquitted by the TADA court, where the case was heard earlier.

Immediately after the Radhabai carnage, which had sparked off the second round of riots, police picked up 17 people. It must have been easy, for all 17 were Muslims and many of them had record of anti-social activities. By all accounts it was just like one of those regular combing operations that they carry out before a VVIP visit and pick up suspicious characters – someone with a case of pettytheft, someone who was once involved in a minor scuffle, a wife beater. In a way the police action was as wanton as the rioters’ attack on Radhabai. While the latter did not stop to think before taking six innocent lives, the former were as careless while ruining 17 more. And it so turns out in both the cases it was their religion that was held against the victims. The SC order only seems to reaffirm the anti-minority image that police had acquired after the riots. It’s imperative that the police force does something to change this public perception. And, it is equally urgent that they find the `real’ killers of Radhabai Chawl. May be some rigorous, old fashioned sleuthing instead of knee-jerk operations might help.