Suleman Bakery puts the past behind

Sattarbhai’s is the third generation of the Mithaiwalas who now run branches of the famed sweets-makers in the lanes around Minara Masjid. HT reports.

Sattarbhai’s is the third generation of the Mithaiwalas who now run branches of the famed sweets-makers in the lanes around Minara Masjid.

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The bakery was the scene of an alleged police firing on January 9, 1993, that killed eight people, including five staff members of the bakery.

“There had been a curfew for two or three days. Police said there was firing all night from the terrace of the bakery. If people had been firing all night, there should have been plenty of bullets on the road. During the search, the police found no weapons or bullets. But the workers were killed point-blank. One of them, a man with light skin and eyes, was accused of being a Kashmiri though he was from Uttar Pradesh,” said Sattarbhai, who is in his seventies.

Sattarbhai said as people sat in their homes during the periods of curfew, there were events that shook his faith in the city. He said parents of a child who had died after an illness could not take the body for a burial.

Though the stories are still vivid, Mithaiwala would rather forget them. “We have buried the matter deep in the soil,” he said.

On July 5, 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the verdicts of Mumbai sessions court and the Bombay high court discharging retired IPS Officer RD Tyagi who was then a joint commissioner and 8 other police personnel accused of the killing.