SRP shoot down 12 Dalit protestors

As Ghatkopar woke up to a monsoon dawn, early passers-by discovered the sacrilege. Eyewitnesses said the incident was brought to the notice of the local police station just a stone8217;s throw away by a growing mob of protestors. But instead of acting quickly to nab the miscreants, the police allegedly rebuked the protesters. This infuriated the mob and led to violence, witnesses averred.

Adding fuel to the protestors ire was that the desecration took place despite the police chowky being within 30 metres from Dr Ambedkar8217;s bust.This morning, the 200-metre stretch of the highway adjoining Ramabai Nagar and Kamraj Nagar was dotted with damaged vehicles. Some were crushed while other had their windscreens smashed.

The LPG-laden trucks were parked near Kamraj Nagar about 200 metres from the the nearby Ramabai colony, which was the focal point of the violence. At least 20 vehicles were damaged in the mob fury.

Justifying the firing, zonal additional commissioner R K Ghadge told The Indian Express that State Reserve Police SRP patrol resorted to firing because an angry mob of about 500-strong miscreants were about to set fire to three trucks which were laden with Liquefied Petroleum Gas LPG cylinders. According to Ghadge, the protestors were warned for about 10 minutes not to approach the trucks before opening fire. But this was hotly disputed by eyewitnesses and the injured admitted to the Rajawadi Hospital who claimed that no such warning was given. The SRP, Ghadge said, fired 50 rounds.

8220;Had the miscreants succeeded in setting the tankers on fire, all colonies in the 4 sq km radius would have been devastated by the impact of the blast,8221; Ghadge said and added that the mob was equipped with petrol cans.The SRP party, led by sub-inspector M Y Kadam, was summoned from an outpost at P L Lokhande Marg in Chembur. They belonged to D-company, platoon No 3, based at Pune.

Joint Commissioner law and order T K Choudhuri said Ramabai Colony had witnessed violence on several occasions in the recent past, but the police had never resorted to firing. This time the situation was so dangerous that there was no alternative except to resort to firing, he said.

Residents of Rambai Ambedkar Nagar, on the other hand, accused the police of indiscriminate firing without warning. They said, they were only trying to disrupt traffic on the highway when the SRP unit opened fire at them killing 10 people on the spot.

8220;We were on the highway trying to stop traffic when the policemen came chasing us with guns and opened fired at the protestors,8221;said Ms Chandrakala Kamble, a resident of Ramabai Nagar. 8220;The police patrol entered the colony and fired at innocent people when they were running helter-skelter for safety,8221; Kamble added.

Residents said trouble started around 7 am when a strong mob of about 5,000 Dalits from Ramabai Ambedkar Colony went on a rampage pelting stones and setting vehicles on fire in a bid to disrupt traffic along the Eastern Express Highway following the desecration.

Suddenly gun fire racked the morning air and people were seen running helter-skelter for safety. The policemen were closing in with their blazing guns as bullets echoed in the narrow alleys of the predominantly Dalit colony, recounted witnesses.

8220;I tried to remove an injured person to hospital, but a policeman pointed a gun at me and asked me to go indoors. The entire area was cordoned off and no vehicles were allowed inside the colony,8221; said Deepak Kumbre.

A strong posse of police, numbering four SRP company and 11 platoon of local armed police, resorted to lathi-charge on four occasions between 10 am and 2 pm to keep the mob at bay. Teargas shells were also burst to keep the situation under control.

Zonal deputy commissioner Sanjay Barve, who was supervising the operations, finally succeeded in pushing rioters deep into the colony and cutting the area from the highway. Vehicular traffic was finally restored at 2.10 in the afternoon.

Police inspector Suresh Marathe of the nearby Pant Nagar police station said they were the first to reach the scene at 7.10 am. The police then removed the chappals from Ambedkar8217;s bust, Marathe added.

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi later announced a judicial inquiry into the incident which was promptly rejected by the dalit leaders who wanted 8220;instant justice.8221; Joshi initially announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to the kin of the deceased and later, when he saw the fury of the residents who prevented him from visiting the hospital, hiked it to Rs two lakh. He also announced Rs 25, 000 to those injured in the firing.

Expectedly, there was drama in both Houses of the State Legislature. In the Lower House, an adjournment motion moved by the opposition was stalled on technical grounds of exceeding the two-hour time allotted for it. In the Upper House, the irrepressive bane of the Shiv Sena Chhagan Bhujbal accused the Governmnet of unleashing 8220;state terrorism.8221;

But in Ghatkopar8217;s environs the embers of outrage still smouldered as a sick sun set on the metropolis. The police had to advise the Chief Minister and his Deputy to refrain from visiting the troubled area as their safety could not be guaranteed in the face of an unrelenting and wounded mob.

In the wake of festering wounds, the Congress was in to their political games. Seeing a chance to nurture an assured Dalit vote bank, two Mahila Congress office-bearers went on mobilising the residents of Matoshri Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar against the police force this afternoon. The duo, for no reason, provoked the already irate mob to such an extent that the angry youths started pelting stones at the police, who had no alternative but to resort to heavy lathi-charge and the use of tear gas.

Madhumalti Potbhare, vice-president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee and Sunila Joshi, another Congress activist and both special executive officers, went on appealing people 8220;to unite for the caste and fight with the police.8221;

8220;We do not want this State Government which shot dead its own people. We will definitely bring it down before the Assembly session is over,8221; Potbhare said in the style of a politician campaigning for elections.

However, throughout her entire over-dramatised speech provoking the crowd to go berserk with each sentence, Potbhare hardly spoke anything to develop peace. She also forgot to empathise with relatives of those deceased and injured. Instead, she handed over her visiting card to this reporter asking for 8220;adequate exposure.8221;

The irony of the entire episode was that not a single Dalit leader was present in the aftermath of the violence. The authorities on their part geared up to meet the bandh call given by Dalit organisations and by late in the night there was heavy deployment of security forces to prevent untoward incidents.

It was only recently, in March this year to be precise, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had promised that his Government would frame a law 8211; within a month 8211; on the erection of statues of public figures which were being put up indiscriminately at almost every street corner in Maharashtra.

This assurance was given following the desecration of a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar in Srirampur that led to a few incidents before subsiding. However, no codification of the law in this regard has so far taken place.

Apart from the Srirampur and Malegaon incidents this year, according to police records these were 20 other similar incidents this year in Tilaknagar, Ahmednagar, Majra and Chembur Mumbai against 27 last year. There were 142 incidents of like nature in 1995, 184 in 1994 and 125 in 1993. Telling statistics on the Government8217;s assertions on taming caste fires in the State.