Every riotous fury in India comes to the same grinding, and predictable, halt. The innocent people who lose their loved ones battle endlessly-with fading hope-for justice. The guilty are almost never brought to book. A study by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, a Union Home Ministry body, says that between 1954 and 1996, almost 16,000 people lost their lives in 21,000 incidents of rioting, while over one lakh were injured. Only a handful have been held accountable. With gut-wrenching frequency, the story is repeated in Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat.

Over 20 commissions of inquiry have studied major riots in the country, four of which are documented here. Each has, more or less, drawn the same conclusions: the police failed to act with impartiality in every case; the brass rarely acted on its own and almost always looked to the political leadership for direction; the miscreants exploited every such delay in action by indulging in looting and arson. Not a single politician has gone to jail because the government of the day has always found a way to exonerate or drop charges against them.

As the accused go free and justice is mauled after every rabid session of rioting, the victims will continue to hope-and face betrayal yet again.

WALLING WALL: Not since the Partition had the Sikh families witnessed such hatred

Delhi        Dead: 2,733
The assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 sparked riots that lasted 15 days. Several inquiry panels later, 8 people were convicted. The politicians and police got away.

The mayhem began at about 6 p.m. shortly after the death of prime minister Indira Gandhi was announced at the iron gates of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The news set the tone for a communal massacre that India hadn't quite witnessed since Independence. Chaos reigned on the streets and locality after locality in the capital echoed with the shrieks of the dying and burning people. A fortnight of carnage saw over 2,700 dead and many thousands injured.

"President Zail Singh wanted the army to act, but it didn't. The then prime minister and home minister did not take his calls," recalls Tarlochan Singh, who was Zail Singh's press secretary. Today, he chairs the National Minorities Commission.

The worst affected areas were the ones that had elected Congressmen H.K.L. Bhagat and Sajjan Kumar to the Lok Sabha. Yet the police could do nothing to lay their hands on them. Says Supreme Court advocate H.S. Phoolka, who contested numerous cases in the Delhi High Court on behalf of the victims' families: "Even after 19 years, the images of the state-sponsored terrorism scar the mind. All the leaders have got away with murder. Who can have confidence in such a democratic system?"

GRAVE SIN: It took two months to bring the mindless killings to an end in Meerut

Meerut       Dead: 350
The riots began on May 21, 1987 and continued for two months. The state police conducted a probe but all cases were later withdrawn by the state. The armed personnel accused went scot free.

As with most riots, there are conflicting versions on what set this one off: burning of mills or a reaction to the carnage by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel. A majority claim it was the armed police. The pac men wanted to arrest a man from the Hashimpura area but were stopped by a mob. When the uniformed men tried to force their way in, the crowd became violent. The PAC called in reinforcements and retaliated instantly. About 40 bodies were later found floating in the canal near Maliana village. This ignited communal passions and Meerut was soon on fire. Within hours, over 350 shops in the city and three petrol pumps had been burnt. In the following two months, 350 people were killed, among them prominent residents including a doctor from Hapur and an army captain. Rationality took the backseat as one set of residents instigated massacres against another. It took several weeks for a 13,000-strong army detachment to restore sanity on Meerut's streets.

Says Meerut Bar Association President Anil Bakshi, who took up the cases of over 30 accused: "Innocent people were framed by the state administration to save the policemen guilty of the massacre." The Uttar Pradesh government, under pressure from the Rajiv Gandhi government, withdrew hundreds of cases from district courts in Meerut. As a result, there were no convictions. The PAC, having terrorised a large section of Meerut, was the biggest gainer-and justice the biggest loser.

TRAUMA TURF: One of the most gruesome massacres took place in Chanderi village

Bhagalpur      Dead: 1,000
On October 23, 1989 began the month-long riots triggered by police atrocities. Of the 864 cases filed by the police, 535 were closed and most accused acquitted for lack of evidence.

Following police atrocities in 1989, the silk city of Bhagalpur saw massacre and arson in which over 1,000 people died, nearly 50,000 were displaced and 11,500 houses torched. In the carnage, an army major herded 100 men, women and children to a house at Chanderi village and posted the local police for their protection. The next morning, however, he found the house empty. Four days later, 61 mutilated bodies were found in a nearby pond, among them a live Malika Bano whose right leg had been chopped off.

Bano narrated a story that continues to haunt Bhagalpur. On the night of October 27, a frenzied mob took over the house from the police, slaughtered the people hiding inside and tossed their bodies in the pond.

Of the 864 cases registered by the Bihar Police, chargesheets were filed in only 329 cases. In 100 of these, the accused were acquitted for want of evidence. Chanderi was no different. Of the 38 accused, only 16 were convicted andsentenced to rigorous life terms, while 22 were acquitted.

BURNING FURY: Property worth crores was destroyed

Mumbai      Dead: 1,788
The Babri masjid demolition set off riots between December 1992 and January 1993. The Sri Krishna panel examined 502 witnesses, but no police officer has yet been punished.

Hours after the demolition of the Babri masjid, Mumbai erupted. For five days in December 1992 and then again for a fortnight in January, the city witnessed unprecedented riots. As many as 1,788 people were killed and property worth crores of rupees destroyed.

On January 25, 1993, the Maharashtra government set up the Sri Krishna Commission of Inquiry, which recorded the evidence of 502 witnesses and examined 2,903 exhibits. But three years later, on January 23, 1996, the BJP-Shiv Sena government wound up the commission, only to reinstate it later under public pressure. The commission finally submitted its report on February 16, 1998. Of the 17 police officers who were formally charged in mid-2001, not one has been arrested so far. Even departmental action has not been initiated against them. In April this year, former city police commissioner R.D. Tyagi and eight serving police officers accused of killing nine people, were discharged by a Mumbai sessions court.

-compiled by Sayantan Chakravarty, Sheela Raval and Farzand Ahmed