A sessions court in Mumbai has acquitted the last remaining accused in a 1993 communal riots case, bringing closure to a trial that spanned over three decades.
The court held that the prosecution failed to prove the involvement of Asif Ali Hasmulla Shaikh, 53, in the violence that erupted in Mumabi’s Wadala during the January 1993 riots.
Mumbai witnessed one of its worst communal riots in the aftermath of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The riots claimed an estimated 900 lives in Mumbai.
‘No evidence’
In the December 5 order, a copy of which was made available on Thursday, Additional Sessions Judge M.B. Oza observed, “There is absolutely no evidence to show the complicity of the accused in the said crime.” The judge noted, “There was no identification parade. The witnesses admitted that the accused persons were unknown to them prior to the incident.”
