The morning of December 9, 1992 is forever etched in the memory of 35-year-old Rashid Turuq. That morning changed his life like nothing else did. Not even the birth of his three children back home in Dabhol on the Konkan coast. In the 10 years since that morning, this cook at the New Excelsior Cafe opposite New Excelsior cinema in south Mumbai has made more than 100 trips to the Mazgaon Metropolitan Court. But more painful was the humiliation: He was a ‘rioter’ in the eyes of the law.Date after date followed and in October this year Rashid was finally acquitted from the case. He was among the 26 people acquitted by the court after Byculla police failed to prove charges.‘‘I had gone to meet my uncle who lived in the BPT Quarters at Wadibunder along with two boys from my village. We were sipping tea in his tiny first floor room when we heard a commotion on the road below. After about 10 minutes, a police party whisked four of us away and arrested us,’’ says Rashid, clutching a battered, sepia-tinted bunch of case papers in his hands.The FIR in his hands narrates the story from the police point of view. According to the FIR, Rashid and three others were among two groups of 60 rioters who threatened a police patrol.Nine sections of the Indian Penal Code were slapped against him including unlawful assembly, rioting and obstructing a public servant from performing his duty.The majority of the 60 accused didn’t bother much. Some went back to their villages, some flew to the Gulf for more lucrative jobs. Even his so-called companions in the crime — his uncle and two friends from the village — were rarely present in court. But Rashid kept up his routine.‘‘I didn’t stand inside the witness box even once. It was always a long wait in the court room and then another date next month. It just went on and on.’’ Asked why didn’t he run away to the Gulf like the others he said if Bal Thackeray and Salman Khan can be arrested despite their money and influence, what have I got to save myself?’’ Noticing the sincerity of the likes of Rashid, the magistrate finally separated the trial of the 26 accused and expedited it.‘‘The group included a doctor who travelled all the way from Konkan for every hearing. There could be hundreds of such cases across the 75 police stations in the city,’’ says A.R. Kazi, the defence lawyer who handled the case. Each court visit cost Rashid more than three hours and Rs 50 as the lawyer’s fee.While Rashid stands at one end of the spectrum, State Minorities Commission Chairperson Mohammed Amin Khandwani, who is officially in charge of safeguarding the minorities’ rights, stands at the other end. Booked for a riot case by the Mahim police in 1992, Khandwani hasn’t been as lucky. He still goes to the court. Khandwani claims he was booked while trying to calm down an agitated Muslim mob near Mahim Durgah. ‘‘The police officials refuse to come in the box. I will fight the case till they arrive,’’ he says.
