30 years on, a money order tracks down 1993 riot accused

We sent a money order of ₹500 to his name to the address and received an acknowledgement which had his signature that confirmed the accused was alive and staying at the address. Our teams then visited the area and swiftly picked him up,” said Jadhav

MUMBAI: After three decades of evading arrest, the police took its final chance to catch an absconder, booked for attempted murder during the communal riots of January 1993, in which over 900 people were killed. The police officials sent a money order of ₹500 to one of the addresses of the accused, Dashrath Ramprasad Rajbhar, 65, in in Kalyan, to which he gave his acknowledgement, leading to his arrest on Friday.

30 years on, a money order tracks down 1993 riot accused

The Wadala police had registered a case in 1993 for attempt to murder, unlawful assembly, joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons, and rioting and also booked several people for being members of unlawful assembly for prosecuting common objects and mischief causing damage to property under relevant sections the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The 1993 riots sparked off after the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, in Ayodhya. “The police officers had arrested several accused in the case in 1993. Rajbhar was one of them. However, after securing bail, he fled from the city and never attended the court proceeding and did not remain available to face the trial. The sessions court had therefore issued several bailable and non-bailable warrants for his arrest but in vain. He was eventually declared as an absconder by the court,” said Sanjay Latkar, DCP, Port Zone.

The police teams were searching for Rajbhar continuously, but despite their best efforts, they could not trace him.

“He stayed in Uttar Pradesh for some time. Later, he came back to Mumbai and stayed in Thane and was currently staying in Kalyan. We didn’t have his photo and were told earlier by our sources that he had died. However, as we didn’t have any death certificate, we kept on investigating the matter. Our teams even visited his native place Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh several times,” said Milind Jadhav, senior police inspector of Wadala police station.

Our teams again checked on the surety of his bail and all his documents. After questioning the surety, police teams later got one address of the accused in Kalyan. “We sent a money order of ₹500 to his name to the address and received an acknowledgement which had his signature that confirmed the accused was alive and staying at the address. Our teams then visited the area and swiftly picked him up,” said Jadhav.

The police said Rajbhar was produced before the sessions court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody.

After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, by Hindu Karsevaks, communal riots took place across the country. The sharpest reaction was, however, seen in Mumbai where over 900 people were killed, and scores were injured in two phases of communal rights in December 1992 and January 1993. Later on, March 11, 1993, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar allegedly triggered a series of 12 powerful bomb blasts in the city – as revenge for the Babri Masjid demolition and killing of Muslims in the communal riots, killing 257 persons and injuring around 1,400 others.

The case registered with the Wadala police was part of the riots in the second phase.