Three decades after the 1993 Mumbai riots, police have arrested a 54-year-old man accused of participating in the violence. After evading authorities for 32 years, he has now been booked under IPC sections related to rioting and murder.
Wadala police stated that the accused, Arif Ali Hashmulla Khan, was initially arrested and booked, but failed to appear after being released on bail. As a result, the court declared him absconding.
Port Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijaykant Sagar directed the formation of a special team to track down Khan. Although investigations confirmed he was originally from Uttar Pradesh, questioning his relatives and acquaintances there yielded no useful leads.
Police eventually located Khan’s brother, believed to be residing in Mumbai. “He provided only limited information during questioning,” officials said. However, he did indicate that Khan might be living in the Wadala or Antop Hill area under an assumed identity.
Focusing their search on Wadala and Antop Hill, police worked through a network of informers, scanning for individuals matching Khan’s height, build, age, and aliases, an officer said. On July 3, they identified a man in Deen Bandhu Nagar, Wadala, who closely resembled Khan.
The police kept Khan under surveillance for two days, and once they confirmed his identity, he was arrested on July 5. According to senior inspector Sudarshan Honwadjakar, Khan had been working as a welder and had changed his surname to Shaikh in an attempt to evade arrest.
In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992-1993, Mumbai witnessed widespread riots, followed by a series of 12 bomb blasts across key locations. During this period of unrest, Khan was identified as one of the individuals involved in the violent rampage that gripped the city.
