Former judge of the Bombay High Court Shrikant C Malte will hold a judicial probe into the circumstances leading to the January 6, 2013 communal riots at Dhule in north Maharashtra, in which six persons were killed and 169 others injured.
The single-member judicial commission, set up under Justice (retd) Malte, has been set a deadline of three months to complete the probe.
Apart from establishing the circumstances leading to the communal disturbances, the Malte Commission will try to ascertain if individual or group had engineered the riots.
The commission will also probe if the district administration and police handled the law and order situation arising out of the riots effectively and if the firing resorted to by the police during the riots was justified.
Besides fixing responsibility for the riots, the Commission will recommend steps to be taken by the State Government and district administration to ensure against recurrence of similar riots at Dhule in future.
Earlier in the day, making an announcement about appointment of Justice (retd) Malte to probe the Dhule riots, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said in the State Assembly that 24 persons had so far been arrested in connection with the communal riots -- which broke out after a petty quarrel over payment of a bill in Machibazar locality of the north Maharashtra town.
Patil was responding to queries by the leader of the Opposition Eknath Khadse, who wanted to know if there was any link between the much-discussed inflammatory speech allegedly made MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi in Andhra Pradesh.
Replying to a question by Subhash Desai of the Shiv Sena, Patil denied that the State Government had given any compensation to those behind the riots. “We have given compensation to those families affected by the riots and not those who took part in the riots,” the Minister said.
The appointment of a former judge of the Bombay High Court comes less than a month after the Dhule district police arrested six policemen - four State Reserve Police (SRP) personnel and two constables - for allegedly indulging theft and looting a shop during the January 6,2013 riots. The arrest had followed publication of photographs showing th police personnel indulging in looting and theft.
The six police personnel --liladhar Sonawane, Ganesh Patil, Chabulal Vende, D S Sonawane (all SRP personnel), Jawahar Pawar and Yogesh Shinde ( both constables) - have been charged under sections 380 (theft) and 461 (dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which attract a maximum punishment seven years in jail.
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