1993 riots: Hari Masjid firing case closed

MUMBAI: After more than five years, the special CBI magistrate court on Tuesday accepted the closure report filed by CBI in the 1993 Hari Masjid firing case, exonerating the police officials for lack of evidence.

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The case dates back to the 1993 Mumbai riots where on January 10, 1993, a group of police officers, led by the then assistant police inspector Nikhil Kapse, had entered the Masjid in suburban Wadala and opened fire. In the incident, seven people had died and six were seriously injured.

One of the victims, Faroque Mapkar, who was shot in his abdomen and was also booked by police for rioting, had later filed a complaint against the police.

The state police had exonerated Kapse followed by which Mapkar had moved high court seeking CBI inquiry. On the petition of Mapkar, the high court had handed over the case to CBI for investigation in 2008. Two years after the investigation, the central agency filed a closure report in December 2011, saying they didn’t find any credible evidence to support the complaint.