HC raps state for not forwarding proposal to CBI

Mumbai, Feb 5 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for not completing required formalities to hand over the Hari Masjid police firing case to the CBI for investigation.

A division bench comprising Justices S B Mhase and Amjad Sayyad, said: ''The state is only killing time and nothing else and is purposely doing it''.

During the course of hearing on a petition filed by Farook Mohammed Kasim Mapkar, one of the victims of the police firing, Public Prosecutor Satish Borulkar today informed the court the CBI had rejected the state government's proposal to investigate into the Hari Masjid police firing case, which took place during communal riots in the city in December'92 and January '93.

The court also criticised on Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil when it found that a fresh proposal for CBI investigation was pending in his office for more than a month. The state government had decided to hand over the case to the CBI in October last year, but the Central agency had refused to take over the investigation and informed the state of its decision on December 27, 2007.

The state had to face ire of the High Court again today, as the records called by the court, revealed no formal proposal required under provisions of the Delhi Special Police Act to handover investigations to CBI, were not completed by the state government.

The court, therefore, directed both the state and Union governments to make clear by tomorrow, whether required notifications at state and Central levels were issued. It also directed the state to forward a fresh ''meticulous'' proposal to the Centre by day-after-tomorrow.

Mapkar moved the High Court, seeking criminal prosecution against the police party, led by then police Sub-Inspector Nikhil Kapse, who had opened fire on 'Namazis' assembled in Hari Masjid. Seven people had died and seven others were injured in the January 10, 1993 police firing. Despite numerous attempts on part of the petitioner, the police did not file an FIR against the policemen.

Kapse has been indicted by Justice Srikrishna Commission, which inquired into 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai, for ''unprovoked'' police firing in Hari Masjid. Referring to the police firing, Justice Srikrishna Commission has observed in its report, ''The police version of the story is totally unbelievable and fabricated'' and that ''PSI Kapse - presently working with the economic offences wing of the Mumbai police - not only suppressed facts but also fabricated records''.

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