Ramabai firing case adjourned to Jun 25

Ad hoc additional sessions judge A Khatwakar on Monday adjourned till June 25 the 1997 Ramabai Nagar firing-during case to enable the prosecution to file its list of witnesses, list of documents they intend to rely upon and details of counter cases by the alleged perpetrators of the crime.

Since the prosecution had failed to submit along with the chargesheet a map of the site of crime, the judge has directed it to do so. The map is important as the case is one of rioting and the counter cases by the victims of a police shoot out during the riots.

Following desecration of Dr Ambedkar’s statue in Kanpur, UP, on July 11, 1997, rioting took place at Ghatkopar and other parts of the city, while Maharashtra saw state-wide riots in protest against the desecration. People were killed and injured, and the Deccan Queen (the prestigious Mumbai-Pune train) was set on fire.

In order to control the mob at Ramabai Nagar, State Reserve Police PSI Manohar Kadam ordered fire resulting in the death of 11 protesters. Kadam was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The victims’ families moved court demanding to enhance the charge to ‘murder’.

The state has filed a complaint for rioting against the rioters. The rioters in their turn have filed for murder of their colleagues.