STF re-arrests 20 people for 93 riots

Mumbai, Oct 23 (UNI) The Special Task Force has re-arrested 20 people, allegedly involved in the 1992-93 communal riots in the Metropolis, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said here today.

''We have re-arrested 20 people. Most of them were involved in arson, robbery and other serious offences during the riots,'' Mr Patil told a group of Urdu scribes, during an interaction meeting in his office in South Mumbai.

Stating that his Government was committed to implement the Srikrishna Commission's report in toto, Mr Patil, who also holds the home portfolio, said, ''the State Government's Law and Judiciary department has already written to the Bombay High Court for setting up special courts to try cases related to December 1992-January 1993 communal riots, and these will be set up soon.'' He also revealed that the Government had appointed six public prosecutors to plead the victims' cases in the proposed fast track courts.

''Two of these prosecutors were named by the NGOs, working for the implementation of the Commission's report,'' he said.

On the issue of the controversial Hari Masjid Police firing case, in which police allegedly resorted to firing on innocent Muslims during the worst-ever carnage against the minority community in the metropolis in 1993, Mr Patil said the case had already been handed over to the CBI for investigation.

UNI