The court, however, upheld the life term handed down to four other accused
by a trial court
The Bombay High Court on Monday acquitted five accused
in the 2002 Best Bakery riots case for want of evidence, but upheld the
conviction of four others sentenced to life by a trial court.
A division bench of Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode —
who had on July 3 reserved the judgment on the accused's appeals against the
trial court ruling — upheld the sentences of Sanjay Thakkar, Bahadur Singh
Chauhan, Sanabhai Baria and Dinesh Rajbhar. The judges relied on the statements
of four injured witnesses, all of whom worked at Best Bakery in Vadodara,
Gujarat. The witnesses had identified the accused and said that they were armed
with swords and other weapons.
On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra train
carnage, a mob attacked the bakery and killed 14 people, mostly Muslims.
Seventeen people were named as accused in the case, and a special court in
Mumbai convicted nine of them in 2006.
The nine accused had then moved the High Court,
challenging the ruling. The division bench commenced day-to-day hearings over
their appeals in March this year.
The bench overturned the trial court's order against
Rajubhai Baria, Pankaj Goasvi, Jagdish Rajput, Suresh, alias Lalo Devjibhai
Vasava, and Shailesh Tadvi, saying there was no evidence against them. The
judges said none of the witnesses had "attributed" any role to them
during the riots.
In a twist to the case, one of the witnesses, Yasmeen
Shaikh, had filed a petition in the court stating that she was "lured and
misguided" into giving a false testimony against the 17 accused by
activist Teesta Setalvad. She sought her evidence to be recorded again at the
stage of appeal.
The court, however, said that it would first hear and
decide on the accused's appeals. Teesta then filed an intervening application
asking the court to hear her view while deciding the appeals. The court will
pronounce its order on the applications filed by Shaikh and Seetalvad later.
THE BEST BAKERY INCIDENT
On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra train carnage in Gujarat, a mob
of 1,200 attacked Vadodara's Best Bakery and killed 14 people, mostly Muslims.
The bakery, run by a Sheikh family, was set ablaze by the rioters. Three Hindu
workers employed by the family were among those killed.
WHY THE CASE LANDED IN MUMBAI
The Best Bakery case was moved to a special court in Mumbai for retrial after
a court in Gujarat acquitted all 21 accused.
THE TRIAL COURT VERDICT
Of the seventeen people tried by the special court, nine were convicted and
handed down life terms in 2006. Judge Abhay Thipsay pronounced the order in a
high-security Mazgaon court packed with lawyers, media persons, activists and
celebrities.
Judge Thipsay decided against handing out the maximum
death penalty. "The prosecution didn't seek it and moreover there was no
eyewitness account that detailed the specific role of each accused,'' he had
observed.
The star witnesses in the case, Zahira Khan and her
family, who turned hostile during the trial, were pulled up by the court.
Judge Thipsay issued perjury notices against Zahira,
her mother Seherunissa, sister Sairabanu and brothers Nafitullah and
Nasibullah. The family was asked to explain why action should not be taken
against them for "giving false evidence".
