For Kottaimedu families, Coimbatore verdict brings little solace

The killings were said to have been the prime reason for Islamic fundamentalist groups to devastate Coimbatore a few months later.

The police had surrounded Kottaimedu after the constable’s murder and opened indiscriminate fire. There were allegations that the injured were attacked, tortured and set a fire by members of Hindu outfits backed by policemen.

While leaders of the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam say the Al-Umma leaders themselves had handed over four Muslims suspects in the Selvaraj murder case, the police still unleashed violence in Kottaimedu two hours later.

“It was not just cadres of the Al-Umma who were targets of the police, but ordinary peace-loving Muslims as well,” said Mustafa Aliyar, who had accompanied Ubaid Rehman on his motorbike. The two told the police at the entrance of Kottaimedu that they were going to the latter’s sister’s house. “They shot Ubaid after clubbing us with rifle butts. They pushed the bayonet through my mouth and shot me through the back,” he said.

Arjun Sampath, leader of the Hindu Makkal Katchi, a Hindu outfit, said: “Fourteen of us were arrested, including my party cadres and myself. We were made scapegoats by the police.” Cases against Sampath and his deputy Athiradi Anandhan were dropped between 1999 and 2000, while the Madras High Court acquitted the 12 others. None of the policemen involved in the attack were arrested or tried against.

Arson and violence were unleashed against business establishments owned by Muslims, which was described by the media as a “planned pogrom” by a section of the police and militant Hindu outfits. A rough estimate of the property damaged was put at Rs 70 crore. A report tabled in the Assembly in November, 1998, by Justice Gokulakrishnan, set up to inquire into the violence, said the police firing were “warranted and justified.”