July 17: Even as the city police armed themselves with a video film justifying the firing at Ramabai colony, an independent study conducted by two citizens' groups today discredited it, saying the shots had been edited out to suit the police version.

Lokshahi Hakk Sanghatana (LHS) and the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) today released a report stating that the police version showing a burning vehicle near the two tankers was false, as the tankers were not there at the time of firing. In the video exhibited by the police and taken by an amateur in his Handycam, the firing episode is shown in about three minutes. The shots show a burning luxury coach near two tankers on the highway. A corpse lying on the highway is also shown as proof of rioting on the highway.

However, the committee believes that the film was actually 15 minutes long. It has called into question the editing techniques used. ``Who are the police to edit a film containing important documentary evidence?'' asked Vinod Shetty, an LHS member.

While the fact finding team has not seen the video clipping, and has based its investigations on eye witness accounts, it claims that the theory of the LPG tanker has been fabricated by the police. The team claims the private luxury bus was set afire after the police firing and not before, and that from the police's own admissions, no rules of procedure were followed as far as firing on civilian population is concerned.

The report also adds that a description of the dead and the positions in which they died clearly shows that they were residents going about their daily routine and work, and were shot at random.

Describing the sequence of the firing, the report states that by 7.20 am, two vans of the SRP had come into the highway. Crowds began pelting stones at them and the police retreated. A few minutes later, 2 vans approached the Ramabai Nagar from the opposite end via Chembur. The crowd then pelted stones at them as well. It was when the fourth van reached the highway, directly opposite the Buddha Vihar, that the SRP got out of the van, took position along the highway and began firing directly into the crowd and into the colony.

Vikas Pawar, one of the suspects in the case who made an appearance at the press meet, alleged that all the victims of firing had been below the waist. Giving detailed descriptions of the wounds on the bodies of most victims, he said it was evident that the police were more interested in their deaths rather than preventing them from reaching the `tankers'. He also alleged that Sudhakar Kapadne, an eyewitness to the whole episode, was first detained in a jeep and then asked to walk back to the colony. As he walked, he was shot in the chest. ``He was shot dead because he could identify the officials involved in the firing,'' said Namdeo Ubale, a Congress corporator and another suspect.

The study called for penalisation of the culprits in the desecration as well as the police personnel who fired at the crowd. It also demanded that the police refrain from framing innocent Dalits of the colony in their investigations.

Meanwhile, a member of the Commission for Scheduled Castes, Anand Mohan Vishwas, has also claimed that the video clipping itself is suspect. Talking after meeting the injured at Rajawadi hospital, he said the government was unwilling to divulge the name of the videographer, nor explain how it reached the police. Vishwas said that he would be giving a detailed report on the incident to the President. ``The police commissioner has not been able to convince me that people had climbed the tanker,'' he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.