1993 Suleman Bakery case: Court hears audio recording of wireless messages

A court conducting trial in the 1993 Suleman Bakery case, where seven policemen are accused of opening fire on innocent persons during the 1993 riots, heard an audio recording of wireless messages to the police control room Wednesday. The recording was played in the court of additional sessions judge U M Padwad here. Krishna Desai, a wireless operator at the Mumbai police headquarters then, confirmed that there was a message from Pydhonie police about firing on a police team from inside the bakery.

"After hearing so many messages I realised that the situation was unprecedented," the witness told the court. Seven policemen are accused of firing indiscriminately inside Suleman Bakery in South Mumbai on January 9, 1993, killing nine persons. They are facing trial on various charges, including murder. Their defence is that they fired only in retaliation as there was firing from inside when the police team raided the bakery. In November last year, the trial court ordered that recordings of police wireless messages be heard to check if their transcription was correct.

As part of evidence, the prosecution has produced two audio cassettes containing recordings of wireless messages received by the police control room from the areas where riots took place that day. In 2016, defence lawyers claimed discrepancies in the recordings and the transcripts submitted by the prosecution and demanded that the recordings be played in the court. The court was supposed to hear the recordings Tuesday, but could not do so for want of a tape recorder. Around 900 people died in riots in Mumbai following the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992.

(With inputs from agencies.)