13 acquitted of post-Babri rioting in Mumbai

A special court on Wednesday acquitted of all counts 13 out of 33 people booked on charges of rioting in December 1992, due to lack of evidence.

On December 7, 1992, the day after the demolition of Babri masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, a group had pelted stones and resorted to arson in Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb of Mumbai. For this, the police had booked 33 people, of them 13 were traced, against whom trial was conducted, while the remaining accused absconded.

Passing judgment in the case, metropolitan magistrate S S Sharma, who is presiding over the riot cases of 1992, said all the 13 people against whom trial proceedings were launched, were acquitted of all charges as the police had failed to prove the charges against them.

The remaining 20 accused are still at large.

The prosecution had also levelled a charge of kidnapping against the accused, but the police failed to prove at the trial who was kidnapped by whom and when.