The sentencing of actor Sanjay Dutt to six years imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai bombings on Tuesday brought to an end one of the world's longest terror trials during which 12 people were sent to the gallows and 20 got life imprisonment.
It was 14 years and four months ago on March 12, 1993, when a string of powerful blasts killed 257 people in Mumbai and injured hundreds.
Many believe that the blasts were a conspiracy by Mumbai's so-called Muslims. But what of the so-called Hindu riots before the blasts in which 900 people died?
As the 1993 blast accused are punished, riot-accused from all over India are often acquitted or not charged at all.
That was the issue discussed on CNN-IBN show Face The Nation: Does the law discriminate between riot and blast accused?
To debate the question, on the panel were social activist and Secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad, Maharashtra’s Additional Director General of Police Arup Patnaik (he was the deputy commissioner in Bandra when the riots took place in 1992), senior Supreme Court lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal and columnist and member of BJP Sheshadri Chari. The discussion was moderated by Sagarika Ghose.
Blasts vs riots
What is the difference between the riots and the blasts in Mumbai in ’92-’93? Aren’t riots also an act of terror?
“No, riots are not acts of terror. Terrorism is a very definitive. It is a conspiracy against a nation and people. Riots are subject to cause and action theories. Here the TADA court judge has ear-marked why he has punished the people concerned,” said Sheshadri Chari.
Disagreeing with the argument, Teesta Setalvad said that Chari should read the Srikrishna Commission report properly.
“Justice Srikrishna says that the serial blasts were a reaction to the totality of Ayodhya and Mumbai. The Shiv Sena, led by Bal Thakeray, along with Madhukar Sarpotdar, Gopinath Munde and Ram Nayak functioned with the impunity of the street and Sudhakar Rao Nayak’s Congress government turned the other way. The riots were acts of mob terror and the blasts were acts of bomb terror. There is no difference between the two but the law treats it differently,” Setalvad said.
