Best Bakery Case : HC acquits 5 accused

Mumbai. The Bombay high court has acquitted five accused and upheld life imprisonment for four in the Best Bakery case, while observing that there were serious lapses in police investigations. The high court said there wasn’t enough evidence against the acquitted accused. On March 1, 2002, 14 people – including women and children – were burnt to death in Vadodra after the riots broke out.
Delivering the operative part of the judgment on Monday, a division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice PD Kode said the reasoned order will be delivered in a day or two.
The court has upheld the life sentences awarded to Sanjay Thakkar, Bahadursingh Chauhan, Sanabhai Baria and Dinesh Rajbhar after taking into consideration the statements given by four of the eye witnesses.
But reversing the trial court order, the high court acquitted Rajubhai Baria, Pankaj Gosavi, Jagdish Rajput, Suresh alias Lalo Devjibhai Vasava and Shailesh Tadvi, observing that there was no evidence or witness statement confirming the roles allegedly played by these accused.
The judgment came four months after the court started hearing the appeals of the nine convicts. It started dictating the judgment last week.
Activist Teesta Setalvad, too, filed an intervening application seeking a hearing on this issue. The court will pronounce its order on the applications filed by Sheikh and Setalvad later.
Best Bakery Case : The Best Bakery case in Vadodara, in which 14 people were burnt alive, was one of the two cases related to the 2002 riots, which were re-probed and the trial shifted outside Gujarat after the intervention of the Supreme Court. The other was the Bilkis Bano rape and murder case.