38 years on, Dongri riot case ends with acquittal of last accused

The evidence on record did not reflect that the accused, Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh, had participated in rioting or that he was part of the mob that allegedly had attacked the deceased on the day of Muharram, the court said

Mumbai: Nearly four decades after a man was stabbed to death during a communal flare-up in Dongri, a sessions court in Mumbai on Saturday acquitted the sole remaining accused in the case, holding that the prosecution had proved the occurrence of rioting and a homicidal death but failed entirely to connect the accused to the crime.

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“No incriminating material was brought by the prosecution to connect the accused with the crime,” additional sessions judge Mahesh K Jadhav said in the order.

The evidence on record did not reflect that the accused, Mohammad Rafiq Shaikh, had participated in rioting or that he was part of the mob that allegedly had attacked the deceased on the day of Muharram, the judge said, acquitting Shaikh of a clutch of charges including murder, rioting, arson and criminal conspiracy.

Shaikh was arrested only last month – nearly 38 years after the Dongri police registered a case in 1988 – pursuant to a pending non-bailable warrant, and the trial proceeded largely on the basis of previously recorded evidence. Several of the co-accused in the case were acquitted in 2005 and 2007, during earlier rounds of trial.

The court said that it was clear from the oral and documentary evidence that rioting, stone-pelting and arson did occur in parts of Dongri. But with regards to criminal liability – identifying the accused as part of the unlawful assembly – the case collapsed entirely.

It was also proved that Masalewala had died due to “hemorrhage and shock due to stab wound on abdomen”. But none of the police officers, eyewitnesses and panch witnesses who testified before the court had pointed a finger towards Shaikh or attributed any overt act to him; injured witnesses had failed to identify him as an assailant; and no incriminating material or weapons linking him to the arson had been recovered from him.

Significantly, even independent witnesses did not support the prosecution, the court noted. The key testimony “did not reflect that the accused was present on the spot and caused damage”, undermining the case theory of his participation, it said.

On the prosecution’s attempt to invoke unlawful assembly and common object liability, the court was categorical that the foundational requirement, presence and participation, remained unproved.

The court catalogued multiple evidentiary gaps: absence of identification, non-recovery of weapons, failure to prove promulgation orders under the Bombay Police Act, and lack of corroboration on injuries allegedly caused to police personnel and others.

The prosecution had “failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt”, the court said, acquitting Shaikh of all charges and ordering his release.