2023 Akola communal riots: SC orders setting up of SIT with Hindu and Muslim police officers

In 2023, two groups clashed in Akola, leading to the death of a man, over a social media post. The violence erupted in Hariharpeth area where several vehicles were damaged. A 39-year-old electrician, Vilas Gaikwad, was killed and eight others were injured in the incident.

The court also directed that the SIT report be placed before it within three months.

It further stated that “the Secretary, Home Ministry, Government of Maharashtra, shall initiate appropriate disciplinary action against all erring police officials, in accordance with law and due procedure, for the patent dereliction of duties… Measures shall also be initiated to instruct and sensitize the rank and file in the police department as to what law requires of them in the discharge of their duties”.

Writing for the bench, Justice Sanjay Kumar said, “Needless to state, when members of the police force on their uniforms, they are required to shed their personal predilections and biases, be they religious, racial, casteist or otherwise. They must be true to the call of duty attached to their office and their uniform with absolute and total integrity. Unfortunately, in the case on hand, this did not happen.”

Sharif, who was a minor (17) at the time of the alleged incident, had earlier approached the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court complaining that the police officers concerned had failed in their duty by not registering an FIR with respect to the alleged attack and assault on him.

He claimed that on his way back home that fateful night, he witnessed four unknown persons assaulting an autorickshaw driver. They then assaulted him, too, and damaged his vehicle. Sharif “asserted that he was an eyewitness to the murderous assault on the person in the auto rickshaw, whose name was revealed to him later as Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad.”

He stated that it was well within the knowledge of the people of Akola that the deceased was plying the autorickshaw of a Muslim, which bore a sticker with the name “Garib Nawaz”. The appellant stated that under the mistaken identity/belief that the deceased was a Muslim, the four unknown assailants had caused his death and, thereafter, attacked him.

Sharif told the SC that though an FIR was registered with respect to the murder of the autorickshaw driver, no FIR was registered over the alleged assault on him following which he  approached the High Court, which dismissed his plea.

The SC said, “Though the affidavits filed by the police inspector of the Old City Police Station, Akola, tried to attribute motives to the appellant and the same was willingly accepted and acted upon by the High Court, we are not persuaded to agree at this stage. It was for the police to investigate the truth or otherwise of the specific allegations made by the appellant, a 17-year-old boy, who asserted that he was an eyewitness to the murder of Vilas Mahadevrao Gaikwad and was himself assaulted by the very same assailants.”

“If, in fact, the deceased was really murdered under the impression that he belonged to Muslim community and the assailants were not of that community, that was a fact that had to be ascertained after thorough and proper investigation. When the appellant claimed that he could identify one of the four assailants, that claim also required to be followed up with detailed investigation by ascertaining the location of the person so identified at the relevant time through mobile phone location, call data records, etc.,” the court said.