Two get 3-month jail in 1993 Mumbai riot case

MUMBAI: Two persons were on Saturday convicted by a special court for assaulting and molesting a couple from the minority community at Dharavi during the 1993 communal riots.

Naresh Kamble and Suresh Shah were on bail for 15 years after the incident and their conviction came after they were identified as the assailants by the victims in the court set up to try the riot cases following the Babri Masjid demolition.

Magistrate R C Bapat-Sarkar found the duo guilty under IPC Sections 323 (causing voluntary hurt), 354 (outraging modesty of a woman) and 341 (wrongful restraint). They were awarded three-month jail term each.

On January 2, 1993 Iftikhar and his wife Jubeen Damad had arrived here from neighbouring Raigad district to attend a relative's wedding at Vile Parle. They were travelling in an autorickshaw at around 2.30 am when an armed mob of a dozen people stopped them near Dharavi, a slum locality.

"They asked us if we were Hindus or Muslims. We didn't know that truth would hurt so much. The moment we said Muslims, they dragged us out of the rickshaw and thrashed us, assaulting us with choppers and sticks," Jubeen told the court. The mob only dispersed when a police jeep arrived.

In court, the couple identified the duo as two of the four men who had assaulted them. Iftikhar said, "We remembered Kamble clearly as he had assaulted both Jubeen and me. Shah had also joined in."

Jubeen said, "I can never forget their faces in my life." "The men dragged me to a dark corner near the road and kept hitting me. I was shocked. Just when I thought I wouldn't survive, Iftikhar arrived with policemen," Jubeen said.