More trouble for Tyagi: State will appeal discharge

The state has decided to appeal former Mumbai police commissioner RD Tyagi’s discharge in the Suleman Bakery firing case during the 1992-93 communal riots, according to sources.

A Sessions Court had on 16 April, 2003 discharged Tyagi and eight other policemen in the case, in which nine innocent people were killed. He was discharged on the ground that he was “discharging his official duty” and that there was no evidence to frame charges. However, the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the 1992-93 communal riots, implicated Tyagi, then a joint commissioner of the police, for his involvement in the unprovoked firing at the bakery.

Following Tyagi’s discharge, the state had promised to appeal the order. The decision had been put on hold after then chief public prosecutor Rohini Salian and the Law and Judiciary Department opined in the negative.

Home Department sources told HT that the decision to appeal the session court’s order was take during a high-level meeting of Department officials and the chief public prosecutor on Monday.

“The government is under tremendous pressure for sitting over the decision (to appeal against the order) for nearly five years. With elections almost round the corner, the government can ill afford to delay it further,” a Department official said on condition of anonymity.