Important Points
1. Where persons belonging to a particular religion were burnt to death by sprinkling kerosene oil on their rooms bolted from outside by persons of rival community thereby disturbing the harmony and tran­quility of the society by creating fear and a sense of insecurity amongst the society at large, such activities would constitute terror­ist activities within the meaning of TADA Act, 1987.
2. The question of obtaining the prior approval of the Prescribed Authority as required under Section 20A(1) of TADA Act, 1987, before proceeding with the investigation into the offence under TADA Act does not arise as the said provision viz., Section 20A(1) was not in existence on the date of the occurrence of incident.
3. Where the sanctioning authority accorded sanction for taking cogni­zance of offence by the Court after consideration of relevant materials placed before it, such sanction would be a valid sanction under Sec­tion 20A(2) of TADA Act, 1987.
4. If a witness is wholly unreliable, the question of corroboration does not arise.
5. Even if the incident is a ghastly crime and on account of communal frenzy several people belonging to one com­munity were burnt alive by some others but unless and until the prosecution evidence conclusively establishes those others as the prepetrators of crimes, it is not possible for a Court of Law to record conviction on mere conjectures and hypothesis and, therefore, the conviction of all 11 accused per­sons sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500/- in default of which to undergo R.I. for six months, is set aside.

Judgment

Pattanaik, J.—These appeals by the 11 accused persons under Section 19 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Preven­tion) Act, 1987 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the TADA’) are directed against the judgment dated 16.10.1996 passed by the Additional Judge, Designated Court for Greater Bombay in TADA Special Case Nos. 35/93 @ 1/94, 37/94 and 17/95. These appellants and six other stood charged under Sections 120(B), 147, 148, 149, 302, 326, 436, 506 I.P.C. and Section 3(2)(i) and (ii) of the TADA for the ghastly occurrence dated 7th of January, 1993, wherein six persons died out of burn injuries being locked in a room and the room having been put to fire by putting petrol on it. The occurrence is a sequel to the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodya. Shortly after the demolition of the mosque at Ayodya communal riots erupted all over the country including the city of Mumbai. When commu­nal riots erupted in the city in the suburban Jogeswari, an area known as Bandra plots was predominantly occupied by the Muslims and Hindus were in minority. A number of Hindu families were staying in chawls known as Gandhi Chawl, Rajbhai Chawl, Nail Chawl etc. The accommoda­tion usually consists of one-room-tenements having one entrance door and the tenements as situated adjacent to each other. The tragic incident occurred in the house of deceased Rajaram bane who was resid­ing in room No. 2 of Gandhi Chawl. As stated earlier the Hindu commu­nity being in minority, while a group of residents had taken shelter in room No. 2 of Gandhi Chawl, it is alleged that the Muslim accused persons put petrol on the roof of said room No. 2 of Gandhi Chawl and set it on fire and in course of occurrence Rajaram Bane, his wife Sulochana, his neighbours Laxmi Bai Batalu and her daughter Kamla, one crippled girl by name Meenakshi Narkar and one Vandana Todkar died out of burn injuries. It may be stated, out of these deceased persons Sulochana and Vandana were removed to the hospital and they died in the hospital on 10th of January, 1993 and 16th of January, 1993, respectively, while the rest died at the spot itself. While the occur­rence is undoubtedly a ghastly one and exhibits the brutality with which the members of one community attacked the members of another commuity at a point of time when people had been depraved of their sense of judgment and decency and when people had behaved like ani­mals, the still more painful is the manner in which the prosecuting agency picked up indiscriminately people from one community as they were residing in the locality and booked them under different sections of the Penal Code and the TADA and ultimately the learned Designated Court convicted these 11 appellants and acquitted six other co-accused persons. This case exhibits not only callousness on the part of the investigating agency and the cavalier fashion with which the investiga­tion proceeded but also the extent to which the trial Judge has been swayed away to record conviction without any legally admissible trust­worthy evidence. It would, therefore, be necessary for this Court to scrutinise the evidence with care and caution and to find out as to whether notwithstanding the infirmities in the evidence of the prose­cution witnesses whether conviction of any of the accused appellants can at all be sustained.

2. The prosecution case in brief is that on 7th of January, 1993 the accused persons along with some other Muslims terrorised the minority Hindus of the locality in consequence of which the Hindus remained inside their respective rooms in the Chawl. The prosecution further alleged that these accused persons came with deadly weapons in their hands at 9.30 p.m. and warned the Hindus of the locality not to come out of their respective tenements as otherwise they would be killed. The Hindus got frightened, and therefore, preferred to remain inside their respective houses. At 11.30 p.m. while the Hindus had taken shelter in their respective tenements they could