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 Mumbai: A sessions court began on 18 October 2007 the trial on State Reserve Police officer Manohar Kadam, 10 years after he had ordered his platoon to open fire on a Dalit mob for rioting at a sub-urban area in Mumbai in Maharashtra following desecration of BR Ambedkar's statue.
The policemen had resorted to firing in Ramabai Nagar, while complying with the orders of Kadam on 11 July 1997 claiming 10 lives. The SRP officer had, however, said the action was initiated to prevent a major disaster. The first witness, MH Gokhale, Deputy Secretary (Home) who is the sanctioning authority for prosecuting Kadam, deposed before ad-hoc Additional Sessions Judge BD Khataukar. Gokhale told the court that the state Home department had granted the sanction on the basis of the Justice SD Gundewar Commission's report.
The report had blamed the police for inefficient handling of the situation and indicted Kadam for firing indiscriminately, advocate for one of the victims of the firing, Shakeel Ahmed said. Special prosecutor Vijay Pradhan also filed some important documents before the court, including the site map, four witness' statements regarding the site-map and the panchnama, which was not attached with the charge-sheet. Earlier the trial had been delayed as the prosecution had told the court that they needed time to investigate further, and a special six-member team of the Crime Branch was appointed for the purpose. Gokhale's cross-examination would continue on 1 November 2007. (Source: DNA dated 18 October 2007) |
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