Four convicted, five acquitted in Best Bakery case
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- Current News
- Monday, 09 July 2012 19:17
- Published on Monday, 09 July 2012 19:17
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Gujarat Global News Network, Mumbai
The Bombay High Court has pronounced four people guilty in the 2002 Best Bakery case. Five other accused have been acquitted.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode upheld the life sentence of Sanjay Thakkar, Bahadur Singh Chauhan, Sanabhai Baria and Dinesh Rajbhar awarded by the lower court. The bench, however, acquitted Rajubhai Baria, Pankaj Goasvi, Jagdish Rajput, Suresh, alias Lalo Devjibhai Vasava, and Shailesh Tadvi, for lack of evidence against them.
The bench had been hearing appeals by the nine convicted, challenging the lower court's order sentencing them to life imprisonment six years back. The bench relied on the testimony of four injured witnesses, all workers of the Best Bakery, who had identified the accused and said they were present at the place of the incident armed with swords during the 2002 post Godhra riots.
On March 1, 2002 a mob had attacked Best Bakery in Vadodara, looting and burning it down and killing 14 people who had taken shelter inside it. 17 persons were accused of which nine  were convicted and sentenced to life by a special court in Mumbai in 2006. The nine had then approached the High Court challenging the order.Â
The case has seen its share of flip-flops. Prime witness in the case, Yasmeen Shaikh, whose family ran the Best Bakery,  had earlier this year filed an application before the High Court claiming that she was forced to give evidence against the accused by social activist Teesta Setalvad. Teesta too later filed an intervening application seeking the court to hear her side also while deciding the appeals.Â
The court said it would hear both Yasmeen and Teesta's applications at the end of the hearing.Â
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