"Jawan shot as I helped a friend"

The second witness Kailash Barve said he was trying to help his neighbour Nandu Kotre, who was struck by a bullet in his chest, when a jawan yelled at him: “Aage Mat Jaana, hum tumhe goli marenge.” And as he held Kotre’s hand a bullet grazed his ear.

Earlier, Kadam said he waswalking towards his truck when he saw a crowd gathered near the police quarters on the Eastern Express Highway. They were raising slogans and looked quite agitated, but he had no idea what the commotion was all about.

Kadam said that there were some police vans parked there already and he saw a SRP van arriving from the Chembur side. As soon as the van stopped, some jawans jumped out and opened fire. He said that he was hit four times and took shelter behind his truck. “From this spot I saw two others falling to the bullets,” he said.

He recalled the firing lasted for 10-12 minutes. Later, a cop told him that a little ahead on the road, police had made arrangements to take injured to a hospital. A bleeding Kadam walked till he came across another group of policemen. “At a traffic signal I asked some policemen to take me to the hospital, but they refused saying they were on bandobast duty,” said Kadam. He then boarded a rickshaw to Rajawadi Hospital.

During cross examination by the counsel forCommission, Aruna Kamath, Kadam said he did not see any bus set on fire by the mob and added that there was no mob in the direction in which the SRP jawans were firing. Answering questions asked by Mumbai police counsel, Balkrishna Joshi, he said he did not see anybody throwing stones also.