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Best Bakery carnage - Justice on trial


Indian Muslim Council, USA (IMC-USA)

'Defending India's freedom, democracy and pluralism'

IMC-USA Special Edition Digest - March 2006

Best Bakery carnage - Justice on trial

Best Bakery case: The importance
* Best Bakery: Why it is so important
* Is India's 'best' justice good enough? - By Rajeev Dhavan
* Best case: A watershed in legal history
* Riots as Murder: Re-examining the Best Bakery Case - By Rajeev Dhavan

Best Bakery - The massacre: Initial reports
* Best Bakery, Hanuman Tekri
* Ahmedabad calm; rest of Gujarat still simmers
* Chronology of Events
* Charge sheet filed against 21 accused in Best Bakery case in Baroda
* Best Bakery victim won’t marry till guilty punished - By Abhishek Kapoor

Police (in)action and FIR
* Off the hook - By Dionne Bunsha
* Gujarat riots: All 21 accused in Vadodara's Best Bakery carnage acquitted
* The echo of Gujarat’s anguish - By Harsh Mander
* A mockery of law - Editorial
* First Information Report and Zaheeras Complaint

Subversion of the case
* Zahira protected by VHP, 'inds' SC
* Trial by Fear - Tehelka probe exposes plight of riot victims
* Bakery chargesheet names all but man survivor saw
* The Buying Of Zaheera Sheikh
* 'Gujarat witnesses intimidated, harassed' : Human Rights Watch Report

Sham trial by Gujarat government - VHP prosecutors
* Justice? When P in VHP stands for prosecution
* Public prosecutors' 'VHP link' sparks row in Gujarat
* A system on trial - Editorial
* Speedy Injustice - Editorial
* Reverse swing - Editorial

Witnesses turn hostile
* Turning hostile: The story of Zahira - By Abhishek Kapoor
* A just authority - Editorial
* 'Trembling with fear, we lied in court' - By Abhishek Kapoor & Ayesha Khan
* Stoke the embers - Editorial
* Secular crusader - By Gayatri Ramanathan

Acquittal, HC judgment and national outcry
* Gujarat riots: All 21 accused in Vadodara's Best Bakery carnage acquitted
* Look What Best Bakery Judge Also Dished Out - By Manoj Mitta
* Most Wanted: Justice
* NHRC pans Best Bakery acquittals
* The volley of fear - Editorial

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
* NHRC to examine Best Bakery verdict
* Justice, at last?
* BJP, VHP protest NHRC team's Gujarat visit
* NHRC moves SC seeking Best Bakery retrial
* Best Bakery verdict triumph of justice: NHRC

Reluctance to appeal against acquittal
* Appeal as eyewash - By V Venkatesan
* A just authority
* How Modi's counsel stooped low in bid to conquer
* Sowing dragon seed - By Prem Shankar Jha
* Affidavit of Zaheera in the Supreme Court

Media scrutiny - Role of the fourth estate
* Ensuring Justice - Editorial
* Telling tone and tenor - Editorial
* Communal Riot Victims - Editorial
* Justice, at last? - Editorial
* A volatile system - By R.K Raghavan
* Bakery ruling: Wake-up call to judiciary - By Rakesh Bhatnagar
* Best Bakery Case: The Larger Political Implications - By Nalini Taneja
* Bad dough rising - By Prem Shankar Jha
* Justice in a secular society - By Rajeev Dhavan

Demand for retrial outside Gujarat
* SC notice to Centre, Gujarat on NHRC plea
* Ensuring justice - Editorial
* Not too subtle blackmail - Editorial
* Flash in the pan? - By Praful Bidwai
* Out, damned spot - Editorial

Supreme Court Order, observations on appeal
* 'Courts are not tape recorders recording evidence, their objective is to get at truth'
* 'Justice system was taken for a ride and allowed to be abused, mutilated'
* Gujarat Riots: Bringing the Guilty to Court - By A.G. Noorani
* 'HC miserably failed to maintain judicial balance and sobriety'
* Gujarat objects to transfer of Best Bakery case

Judicial system on trial
* Justice on trial
* Gujarat: the wheels of justice get moving - By Jyotirmaya Sharma
* Justice, in Gujarat
* Unsafe for justice
* The Best Bakery verdict - By R.K.Raghavan

Best Bakery case retrial in Mumbai/Maharashtra
* Judge appointed for Best Bakery retrial
* SC tells Gujarat govt to shed ego problems
* Justice on trial - Editorial
* Best Bakery retrial begins in Mazagaon

Zahira's flip-flops
* Zahira flip-flop: Rape of an issue?
* The Tehelka shock - By Dionne Bunsha
* Witness for the prosecution - By Rajeev Dhavan
* SC orders probe into Zaheera, Teesta's claims
* 'Zaheera was paid to flip statements'

Tehelka Expose: Buying of the victims
* The Buying Of Zaheera Sheikh
* Madhu Srivastava: 'Kitne De Diye?' '18 Lakh Rupaiah'
* Batthoo Srivastava: '18 Lakh Poore Cash Diye'
* Tushar Vyas: 'Her Stand Is a Compromise'
* Zareena Shahu: 'Das Baje Din Tak Maarte Rahe'

Conviction of the accused
* Nine get lifer for Best Bakery carnage
* VHP comes calling at Best Bakery
* The Long Arm Of The Law
* Best Bakery Case: Welcome Judgment - Editorial
* State Govt has nothing to say at all

Best Bakery case / verdict: Opinions & Editorials
* A tortuous quest for justice - Editorial
* Get to the Truth - Editorial
* Looking Beyond Zaheera Sheikh - By Rajdeep Sardesai
* Lie of the State: Zahira Symbolises Flaws in Prosecution Process - By Anil Dharker

Perjury - twice victim; Witness protection
* A tortuous quest for justice - Editorial
* Notices to Zaheera, family in perjury case
* Zaheera's turnabout: The search for justice
* Protecting Witnesses
* Trust on Trial: Try Zahira Sheikh for perjury - Editorial

Verdict: Indian Justice System
* 'Best Bakery verdict has restored faith in judiciary' - Antulay Interview
* I am satisfied: Teesta Setalvad
* Constitutional Breakdown - By Prashant Bhushan
* Social Activist Happy With Judgement
* Of Whirlwinds and The Usual Suspects - By Dilip D'Souza

Hope for Gujarat victims
* Ray of hope - Editorial
* Just A Start - Editorial
* The Long Arm Of The Law
* Landmark judgement raises hope

Exemplary role of NGOs, Teesta Setalvad
* Best Bakery Case: Faith Redeemed - By Teesta Setalvad
* 'I am pained and shocked'
* 'A Reaction To Every Action' - Interview
* 'Does the constitution not apply to Gujarat?': Teesta Setalvad - Interview
* Best Bakery victim in city for justice - By Teesta Setalvad

VHP and the Best Bakery case
* BJP, Sangh flay NHRC; Move carries seeds of partition: VHP
* BJP & VHP used us: Godhra victims' kin
* VHP is funding Zahira's expenses - By Bhupen Patel
* Revealed: VHP hand in Zahira meet
* VHP to provide free legal aid, ration to all Best Bakery accused

International Coverage
* Muslims Recant, and Hindus Are Acquitted in Riot Trial
* Discouraging Dissent: Intimidation and Harassment of Witnesses
* Murder charges in Gujarat trial
* India retries pivotal Hindu-Muslim hate crime
* Landmark judgement raises hope

Web Links
* Best Bakery case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
* Best Bakery case: Information From Answers.com

and more ...
Best Bakery case: The importance
Best Bakery: Why it is so important (24 Feb 2006, Rediff)

Why is it so sensational?
The Best Bakery Case has come to symbolise the carnage -- and the alleged complicity of the state government in it -- that followed in Gujarat after the Sabaramati Express was set afire in Godhra in 2002 killing more than 50 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya.

In fact, in December 2003, after being rapped on the knuckles by the Supreme Court, the Gujarat state government admitted there were lapses in the investigations into the case and that the police had bungled in recording evidence.

Also, the Best Bakery, case, like the Jessica Lal case, was considered an open and shut case because there were eye-witnesses. And like the Lal case, it saw witnesses turning hostile, allowing the accused to walk free, till Friday's judgment.

Zaheera Sheikh, then a 19-year-old, who saw her family members burnt to death, became one of the two faces of the Gujarat riots that killed more than 1,000 people. The other being a tailor from Ahmedabad, Qutubuddin Ansari, whose picture -- weeping, with folded hands, begging for mercy -- became one of the haunting images of the riots...

Why did she keep changing her statement all the time?
In January 2005, a sting operation by the publication Tehelka alleged Madu Shrivastava had bribed her Rs 18 lakh (Rs 1.8 million) to change her statement.

What happens to Zaheera now?
The Mumbai court has sent notices to all the witnesses who had turned hostile -- including Zaheera -- asking them to explain why they should not prosecuted for perjury. Obviously, the last word has not been said in the case.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/24best.htm

SEE ALSO:

* Chronology of events in Best Bakery case (24 Feb 2006, Rediff)
http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/24gujarat1.htm

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Is India's 'best' justice good enough? - By Rajeev Dhavan (25 Jul 2003, The Hindu)

Indian justice came to be tested in the Best Bakery riots case. In March 2002, 14 persons were massacred in the bakery in Vadodara. The fast track trial began on May 9 and was completed on June 29, 2003. Fast track justice is efficient, but not necessarily just. Traumatised by events and fearful of their future, witnesses - some innocently young - retracted their statements. Victims' families had no protection, no succour or support. About 36 of the 70 eyewitnesses withdrew in fear. The 21 accused were let off. We do not know who the culprits were...

What happened in the bakery case? The judge blamed the prosecution. The prosecution blamed the witnesses. The witnesses are caught in a frenzy of fear. Direct and indirect pressure - no less the witnesses' own premonitions of a living hell if they told the truth - led to the inconclusive judgment in which the Best Bakery killings became a crime committed by unknown accused. Is Indian investigative and trial justice incapable of unravelling responsibility for a ghastly massacre that took place in the public gaze? Could the judge not have used his power to call witnesses? Indian justice failed. But must it continue to do so? Surely, there is enough for the higher judiciary to intervene now. Otherwise, the failure will be complete.

Is India's 'best' justice good enough? Unfortunately, it has been put in doubt. Indian governance has shown an incapacity to deal with communal issues and protect the minorities. This is a serious charge reflecting on a serious fear in the minds of the minorities who belong to the greatest independent multi-religious and multi-cultural nation in the world.

http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/25/stories/2003072502121000.htm
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Best case: A watershed in legal history (27 Dec 2004, Times of India)

The Best Bakery carnage case will go down in history for two reasons other than the sensational change of testimony by key witness Zahira Sheikh.

First, the Best case pushed the Supreme Court to expand the scope of criminal jurisprudence by ordering the retrial, though the accused were acquitted both by the trial court and the Gujarat HC...

The landmark Bakery judgment had given hope to victims... the apex court termed the Best Bakery case an extraordinary case. The court was convinced that the prosecutor was trying to shield the rioters. It also found that the trial was a farce and the witnesses were intimidated.

"It is in the aforesaid extraordinary circumstances that the court not only directed a de novo trial of the whole case but made further directions for appointment of a new prosecutor with due consultation of the victims," said the SC.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/971731.cms
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Riots as Murder: Re-examining the Best Bakery Case - By Rajeev Dhavan (Sabrang)

What is a riot? Is it as explosion of events which simply happened for which no one is responsible?... It is a series of events for which people are culpable. It is easier for those who rule us to treat riots as unfortunate events which are best forgotten so as to hide what was real and blunt its poignancy by merging everything in the ‘noble’ task of reconstruction that lies ahead... Instead of perceiving riots in their gruesome truth of a series of murderous acts, they conveniently come to be perceived as socially unfortunate incidents for which no one to blame. Such a conception of riots is dishonest and irresponsible...

"What is truly important for India’s present and future in all these respects (i.e. territorial integrity, societal peace, democratic functioning, and even its status in a world of nation-states), is escape from the self-perpetuating traps of blame displacement and the complementary traps of maximizing and minimizing the significance of horrific violence. In short, it is necessary to fix responsibility and penetrate the clouds of deception, rhetoric, mystification, obscurity, and indeterminacy to uncover what can be uncovered, knowing full well that the whole truth can never be known, but that the evident actions and inaction of known persons, groups, organizations, political leaders, media, academics seeking causes, and patriots seeking comfort can be uncovered, exposed, and brought to book."...

India is the most diverse country in the world. Its Muslim population alone is the second largest in the world... If Indian governance is to survive in its pursuit of the greatest experiment in secular living that the world has ever known, it has to do more than wait for all this to happen. It has to keep India’s Hindu fundamentalists at bay. Such communalists would risk India to gain their ends and kill others in the name of riots for their indefensible purposes. The Best Bakery case goes to the root of Indian governance. There cannot be peace without justice.

http://www.sabrang.com/cjp/best/article/rajivreport.htm
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Best Bakery - The massacre: Initial reports
Best Bakery, Hanuman Tekri (Mar-Apr 2002, Sabrang)

A bakery was burnt in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara on March 1, 2002 and along with that, a number of persons were killed or injured. Hanuman Tekri is located on Dabhoi Road on the outskirts of Vadodara. It is a lower middle class and poor neighbourhood. Most of the residents are Hindus; very few Muslim families live there. The basti consists of small houses and very narrow lanes. The houses mostly have tin roofs and very few are more than single-storey structures.

The Best Bakery was one of the few structures, which had more than one storey. The Muslim family owning the bakery had shifted to this area only six months prior to this incident. All other Muslims staying in the area had already left their houses on February 27. Only this family stayed on because Jayantibhai Chaiwala, who is an influential person in the area, assured them safety.

http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2002/marapril/bestbakery.htm

SEE ALSO:

* Chronology of events in Best Bakery case (24 Feb 2006, Newkerala.com)
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=15765
* Charge sheet filed against 21 accused in Best Bakery case in Baroda (25 Jun 2002, Rediff)
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jun/24train1.htm
* Best Bakery chronology: Sheikh-y past (24 Feb 2006, IBN Live)
http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=5872&section_id=3

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Ahmedabad calm; rest of Gujarat still simmers (02 Mar 2002, Rediff)

After three days of continuous violence in Ahmedabad, there was a substantial improvement in the situation on Saturday as the army staged flag marches and the police adopted a tough posture.

But violence spread elsewhere, as 35 people were burnt alive in Mehsana adding to the death toll that state government officials put at 300.

Unofficial estimates, however, have put the death figure at around 400...

In Vadodra, a family of seven was burnt alive when a mob set fire to a bakery in Wadi police station area. Twelve others were injured when police opened fire to quell the mob near the bakery...

Incidents of violence were also reported from Surat and Panchmal districts.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/02train11.htm
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Chronology of Events (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)

27.2.2002 S.6 coach of Sabarmati Express train near Godhra Station burnt by miscreants killing 56 persons

28.2.2002 Bandh called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and supported by the BJP. Widespread violence in Gujarat

1.3.2002 Best Bakery at Vadodara attacked by a Hindu mob of about 150 -200 persons from 8.30 P.M. till 10.00 A.M. on 2nd March, 2002. Police did not give any help. 14 persons died in the attack.

2.3.2002 Zaheera Sheikh, the main eye witness who lost family members during the carnage gave a statement to the Police naming some of the culprits who were from the locality. Various other eye witnesses also gave statements naming culprits.

2.3.2002 Zaheera gives press statements and media interviews naming the culprits. Petitioner No.1 also testifies before the National Human Rights Commission to the effect that she can identify the culprits.

21.3.2002 Zaheera testifies before the PUCL- Shanti Abhiyan team naming the culprits

27.3.2002 The first arrests made in respect of the case, that too, after the issue was raised at Delhi level.

1.4.2002 NHRC’s Report recommending that the investigation into the Best Bakery carnage be handed over to C.B.I.

May, 2002 Zaheera appears before the Concerned Citizens Tribunal, again identifying the culprits.

June, 2002 Charge Sheet filed in the Best Bakery case

June, 2002 Zaheera again makes a statement that though many of the culprits had been charge sheeted, one of the culprits she had named had not been included.

http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=419&issue_id=16
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Charge sheet filed against 21 accused in Best Bakery case in Baroda (25 Jun 2002, Rediff)

Police on Monday filed a charge sheet against 21 accused allegedly involved in the Best Bakery case in which 12 persons were burnt alive in the Dabhoi road in Baroda on March one, during a bandh to protest against the Godhra carnage. Nine of the twelve burnt alive in the Bakery belonged to a minority community.

An angry mob had persuaded the twelve victims to come down from the terrace of the bakery and later burnt them alive.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jun/24train1.htm
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Best Bakery victim won’t marry till guilty punished - By Abhishek Kapoor (28 Feb 2003, Indian Express)

Tens of panchnamas, dozens of visits to the police stations, scores of rounds of government offices for compensation and hundreds of narrations of her story later, Zahira Sheikh, the main witness in the Best Bakery massacre of March 1, sits resigned in her new house on Ajwa Road in Ektanagar on the outskirts of Vadodara.

She had not cried even on the day nine of her family and friends were killed at Best Bakery. If anything, her resolve is stronger. ‘‘I won’t marry till the accused are adequately punished,’’ she says.

Zahira’s only 17, but she’s seen it all: Abuses, threats, expressions of sympathy but no help, offers of help at a cost and a lot more.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=19247
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Police (in)action and FIR
Off the hook - By Dionne Bunsha (Frontline - Vol 20, Iss 14)

The first information report (FIR) was based on her complaint. At several points in time, she provided the police with detailed testimonies against the accused. The police took her statement soon after the incident, when she was admitted to hospital....

Right from the start, cases relating to the communal violence have been fraught with problems. Initially, the police refused to take down statements. When they did register complaints, they did not include all the details mentioned by the witnesses. They did not record the names of the accused mentioned by witnesses. Moreover, the police filed group FIRs instead of separate cases for each complaint. Already, the police have closed around half of the 4,252 cases, citing lack of evidence. These cases will not be tried in court. Other trials have also resulted in acquittals. In Panchmahal district, two tempos carrying refugees from Kadiad village in Sabarkantha were burned en route, killing 73 persons. The case was closed six months ago. "Not a single person was named as an accused, although witnesses had given the police names of the culprits. Around 50 families from Kadiad are still living in a relief camp in Modasa," says Suhel Tirmizi, human rights lawyer. Several accused are apparently `absconding'. However, they roam around freely in the villages, harassing Muslim survivors.

The police have the power to attach the property of those `absconding'. They did that for those accused of the Sabarmati Express massacre, but have not made much of an effort to arrest the riot accused or attach their property. The police have also charged those accused in the Godhra case under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). But none of the accused in the pogrom against Muslims has been charged under the Act.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2014/stories/20030718003402800.htm

SEE ALSO:

* System Failure - By Jyoti Punwani (30 Jul 2003, Indian Express)
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=28572

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Gujarat riots: All 21 accused in Vadodara's Best Bakery carnage acquitted (23 Jul 2003, Rediff)

Among other things, he said that there was an unpardonable delay in registering a First Information Report.

Secondly, those arrested, he said, had nothing to do with the carnage and some of them had even helped rescue 65 persons belonging to the minority community from the area around the Best Bakery.

The judge quoted one of the witnesses Lal Mohammed Shaikh, who resided close to the bakery.

Shaikh had told the court that he and 17 members of his family were rescued by some of the accused.

The judge was critical of the police for harassing innocents found at the site of a crime.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/27guj.htm

SEE ALSO:

* HC indicts police, NGOs in Best Bakery order (12 Jan 2004, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/419208.cms

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The echo of Gujarat’s anguish - By Harsh Mander (28 Sep 2003, Hindustan Times)

The unprecedented outrage of the Supreme Court of India at the brazen subversion of all civilised principles of justice by the elected state government of Gujarat echoed the collective anguish of large sections of the Indian people at the open partisanship and utter impunity of the people who run the state machinery.

The damning observations of the highest court in the land were made in the context of the Best Bakery case, which has justly captured national attention. However, this is only one of literally thousands of cases in which the system of justice has been cynically and efficiently subverted by state authorities in Gujarat, in the aftermath of the carnage of 2002. Of the 4,252 cases registered in connection with the mass violence, as many as 2,107 have been closed without even the issue of a chargesheet to the courts. In 36 cases, the accused have been acquitted after trial. In no case has the accused been punished....

The brazenly partisan exercise of state authority is most evident in the unapologetically discriminatory application of the draconian POTA exclusively against minorities. All 240 cases of POTA in Gujarat have been filed against minorities, and all but one of these has been filed against Muslims. Most of the POTA accused have languished for well over a year in prison without bail. In contrast, despite the brutal carnage which took more than 2,000 lives, not one of the accused have been booked by the state government under POTA.

For the first time in independent India, the state government refused to set up relief camps for the survivors of the brutal massacre. Relief camps set up by the battered community were forcefully disbanded by the state government but many survivors of the carnage are still too terrified to return to their homes in the face of a social and economic blockage. Compensation was arbitrary and a pittance, and again for the first time so soft loans were extended by any bank to assist people to rebuild their devastated homes.

There has been injustice and partisanship by state authorities in India in the past. But never in independent India have state authorities treated a segment of its citizens with such open consistent and elaborate discrimination, in defiance of every civilised principle of justice and the rule of law. The collective failure, of democratic institutions and citizens, to resist, diminishes and enslaves us all.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/
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A mockery of law - Editorial (18 Jul 2003, Hindustan Times)

Even the blind can see in the conduct of the pogrom-related cases being tried in Gujarat that the malign force exerted by the official machinery and the political outfits sympathetic to it are making a monkey of the legal system.

Only four witnesses from the Satellite police station area turned up to depose before the Nanavati Commission probing the riots. None was from the neighbouring Ellisbridge area in which Muslim shops and houses were looted and burned. Two of the four who showed up praised the "timely action" of the police.

The recent acquittal of the 21 accused in the high profile Best Bakery case - in which one of the witnesses, Zahira Sheikh, went back on her first statement - is but a terrifying glimpse of what the legal system is up against. Zaheera was too terrified to speak the truth, as she publicly declared afterward. This, indeed, is the story all over Gujarat, and there can be little hope that the guilty can be brought to book under normal procedures. The judgment in the Best Bakery case was the 37th instance of Gujarat's fast track courts acquitting all the accused for want of reliable witnesses.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

SEE ALSO:

* Post-riot action: Panel seek answers (19 Nov 2005, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1301302.cms

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First Information Report and Zaheeras Complaint (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)

"My name Zahira D/o Habibulla Abdul Rehman Sheikh, Age 18 years, occupation : House Work, Res. Hanuman Tekri, Best Bakery, Dabhoi Road, Vadodara...."

"On asking personally here at S.S.G. Hospital, I dictate my complaint facts that I have been living at the aforesaid address with my family for the last six months... a mob of 1000 to 1200 people was coming from towards the Ganeshnagar slum area and was shouting kill them and burn the bakery and we saw that from the window...."

"uptill morning the people of mob remained surrounding us and on being morning we begged pardon from them... Despite that they were not persuaded and at last as we got down, the people of mob tied the hands of my brothers and the workers of our bakery and they were saying that they would leave them after beating for some time. On saying so, they started hitting my both with brothers and workers with the swords, knives, iron rods etc which they had. And they were taking us all women towards the bushes of the jungle. At that time, they saw the police vans and therefore there occurred stampede and on police reaching there, they saved us...."

"In this mob, I saw that Jayanti... and his nephew Mahesh who is called Mafatiyo and Jayanti's nephew Munno and Pratap and Jayanti's son whose name I do not know and Thakkar who is an activist of our slum area and Kiran, a friend of Mafatiyo and Jeetu who lives in a street opp. to our house and Lalo, a fried of Mafitiyo and Painter who lives in front of Sindhi's shop opp. to our house etc. all these people were there among the mob. Where as others were also there whose name I don't know but I can identify some of them from the mob on seeing them."

"aforesaid persons in association with this mob have attacked our bakery and house and by hitting frequently with the sharp edged weapons killed the persons whose names are given... I have a complaint against them for lawful investigation. My witnesses are my family members and those found during investigation etc.

http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=420&issue_id=16

SEE ALSO:

* Chronology of Events (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=419&issue_id=16

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Subversion of the case
Zahira protected by VHP, 'inds' SC (26 Aug 2005, Times of India)

The committee appointed by the Supreme Court to probe the "flip-flop" by Best Bakery case star witness Zahira Sheikh has reportedly found that she was "financially induced". The committee's investigations also showed that Zahira was living in a locality in Vadodara under the protection of the VHP and Bajrang Dal.

This was revealed in an expose by Tehelka which claims possession of the contents of the report submitted by Supreme Court registrar-general BM Gupta and Delhi police joint commissioner Kanwaljit Deol on Thursday.

The committee also found that Zahira had been threatened and had "returned to Vadodara from Mumbai only because she had bought peace with her tormentors - the perpetrators of the Best Bakery carnage which claimed 14 lives, including those of her family", states Tehelka. Tehelka's earlier sting operation had revealed that Zahira had accepted Rs 18 lakh from BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava to turn hostile in the Vadodara court.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1211999.cms

SEE ALSO:

* Gujarat cover-up: Justice still light years away - By Kingshuk Nag (21 Jul 2002, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/16689388.cms
* Gujarat Riots: Getting away with murder - Biased Bakery - By Manoj Mitta & Rohit Bhan (13 Jul 2003, Indian Express)
http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=27529

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Trial by Fear - Tehelka probe exposes plight of riot victims (24 Dec 2004, Times of India)

It is now alleged that Zahira Sheikh was paid off to change her testimony on the Best Bakery massacre. As we have argued in these columns, she should be tried for perjury. Zahira has failed all those fighting for justice in Gujarat, and more so, victims like her. It is worse if she, as alleged, has sold her victimhood for cash to absolve perpetrators of the gruesome murders at Best Bakery. However, her act raises disturbing questions about our administration and legal system. Despite the laudable efforts of the Supreme Court, the Gujarat government has done little to allay fears of the riot victims in order for them to trust the state in their quest for justice. Investigations by media have indicated that administrators and politicians conspired to prolong the riots and even abetted rioters. Shoddy investigation and farcical trials by local fast track courts in the Best Bakery massacre provoked the apex court to order a retrial outside Gujarat. But, the 'modern day Neroes of Gujarat' remain unmoved by the strictures. In the name of a popular mandate, they stalk the streets of Gujarat threatening and even offering bribes to riot victims and those who aid them. They hope that time and an indifferent state will tire out even the last dogged seeker of justice...

In the Best Bakery case, the investigation should now extend beyond the specifics of the incident on that fateful day and include the allegations of buy-offs and threats by the accused. Also, the prosecution should look beyond Zahira to nail the accused. A singular witness, that too an 18-year-old woman, is hardly the best bet to prove the complicity of powerful politicians in state-abetted violence. The state should provide protection to other witnesses from threats and ensure proper rehabilitation of riot victims to prevent a repeat of the Best Bakery trial. Justice for Gujarat riot victims will be complete only when the state wins back the trust of its citizens.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/969266.cms

SEE ALSO:

* An Open Letter To Shri L.K. Advani - By Dr. Najid Hussain (4 Jul 2003, Outlook)
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?sid=1&fodname=20030704&fname=najid

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Bakery chargesheet names all but man survivor saw (25 Jun 2002, Indian Express)

The Gujarat Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Monday filed the chargesheet in the Best Bakery case - 12 people were burnt alive in the bakery and two were missing. It has ruled out any conspiracy while stating the intention was to cause loss of life and property of Muslims in retaliation to the Godhra attack.

The chargesheet names 21 accused and was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate N.B. Pithwa. It identifies all 21 arrested as the main accused from among the mob of 1,200-odd people involved but the name of Santosh Thakkar, who was accused by survivor Zahirabano, is missing....

The accused also includes a Muslim - Yasin Ali Khokhar. However, defence counsels, Shailesh Patel and Pravik Thakkar, said Khokhar's presence in the mob contradicts police theory that the "intention of the mob" was to cause loss of life and property to Muslims.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=4914

SEE ALSO:

* Best Bakery chargesheet a bundle of lies: Survivor (28 Jun 2002, Indian Express)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=5084

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The Buying Of Zaheera Sheikh (Jan 2005, Tehelka - Vol 2, Iss 1)

- Zaheera was provided police protection soon after she complained about Teesta to the district magistrate, Bhagyesh Jha. She left Mumbai 24 hours before she was to testify there. Why was she not given protection soon after the riots? Not one constable was deployed when the vulnerable Sheikh family was deposing before the Vadodara court in 2003. Why is Zaheera being moved from one secret location to another now that she has turned hostile again?

- Her advocate, Atul Mistry, sat next to her right through the press conference. When a journalist asked Zaheera about her earlier complaint against Madhu Srivastava, Mistry prevented her from replying and virtually whisked her away. Mistry is a junior of Rajendra Trivedi, who was defending the Best Bakery accused in Vadodara. Unwala, the other lawyer, is a junior of Gujarat High Court lawyer KJ Sethna, the younger brother of Justice BJ Sethna, who had upheld the acquittal of Best Bakery accused by the Vadodara fast-track court.

- After her stay at the Airport Hotel in Vadodara, Zaheera was put up at the Silver Oaks Resort in Ahmedabad. The resort is owned by a close friend of Gujarat Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala. TEHELKA posed as an event management company and was told by the Silver Oaks manager that the resort was owned by Om Prakash Agarwal, a relative of former BJP treasurer Ram Das Agarwal. He also said that Agarwal frequently entertained Vajubhai Vala at the resort.

Why did the state go out of its way to intimidate and buy Zaheera Sheikh? The politicians were not the only ones involved in the money game. So was Shailesh Patel, the lawyer defending the accused in the Best Bakery carnage. Why was the lawyer defending the accused in close contact with Madhu and Batthoo? When TEHELKA caught up with him to further corroborate the payoff, he told Bapu, "No, no. It has to be at least 10 lakh," in response to Bapu's assertion that Zaheera did not the promised amount. "And if she had got only this amount (Rs 2-3 lakh), her mother and two brothers would not have turned hostile," he added. He wasn't sure of the exact amount but knew that the deal was being struck.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main10.asp?filename=ts010105The_Buying.asp&id=5

SEE ALSO:

* Zahira's brother levels fresh charges against BJP leader (15 Sep 2004, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/852191.cms
* Best Bakery case: Amnesty blames Centre (10 Jul 2003, The Hindu)
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/10/stories/2003071003631100.htm

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'Gujarat witnesses intimidated, harassed' : Human Rights Watch Report (24 Sep 2004, The Hindu)

Even as the Best Bakery trial gets under way here, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a 30-page report documenting the intimidation and harassment of witnesses in cases relating to the Gujarat communal violence in 2002.

Titled "Discouraging Dissent: Intimidation and Harassment of Witnesses, Human Rights Activists and Lawyers," the report documents the experiences of those who have come forward to provide testimony about the communal conflagration. The report concludes that the Gujarat Government has created an "extremely hostile environment" that has "encouraged a climate of impunity." As a result, those identified as having participated in the violence are openly threatening activists and witnesses who want to pursue justice. "No credible witness protection programme has been established by the State Government, which seems more interested in protecting those responsible for the violence than witnesses and victims," concludes the report....

Teesta Setalvad, Mumbai-based human rights activist, who has diligently followed the Gujarat cases, has also received anonymous sexually abusive calls as well as unidentified men turning up at her office. Similarly, Father Cedric Prakash, Ahmedabad-based priest, who has worked for communal harmony has been targeted for attack and abuse. Several lawyers like Suhel Tirmizi and Huma Khan, who have taken on the riot-related cases, have received abusive anonymous phone calls and warnings. Tirmizi said: "Most lawyers in Gujarat are too scared to take up the riot related cases. They feel isolated and do not want to face threats... I used to oppose bail applications of the accused, which is when I was identified and later threatened."

http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/24/stories/2004092402551200.htm

SEE ALSO:

* Teesta Setalvad 'threatened' (13 Apr 2004, Express India)
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=81615
* Getting away with murder (17 Jul 2003, Sabrang)
http://www.sabrang.com/news/17july03.htm

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Sham trial by Gujarat government - VHP prosecutors
Justice? When P in VHP stands for prosecution (19 Sep 2003, Indian Express)

"...In the larger interest of justice, it's necessary that not only justice should be done but it should appear to have been done. It can be hoped that the government will...expeditiously take appropriate decision to increase the confidence of the public in the administration of justice."

No, that isn't the Supreme Court slamming the Modi government last week. That's the Gujarat High Court in May when some victims filed a criminal complaint that in the Sardarpura riot case - in which 33 people were burnt alive�the public prosecutor was Dilip Trivedi, general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

He continues to be public prosecutor in the case although after the court's strictures, he was pulled out from another case. Like him, several VHP-affiliated lawyers hold the key to justice for riot victims across the state....

Vadodara: 603 FIRs; Sanjay Bhatt, one of the newly appointed public prosecutors asked to handle riot cases, is the nephew of VHP city unit president Ajay Joshi and is also a VHP advocate. Incidentally, Joshi defended the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case which is now under SC scrutiny.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=31837

SEE ALSO:

* Best Bakery Was 37th Riot Acquittal - By Leena Misra (12 Jul 2003, Countercurrents)
http://www.countercurrents.org/guj-misra120703.htm

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Public prosecutors' 'VHP link' sparks row in Gujarat (13 Jul 2003, Hindustan Times)

The appointment of several public prosecutors, allegedly owing allegiance to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, by the BJP-run Gujarat government has stirred a hornet's nest with some legal experts fearing "persecution" rather than "prosecution" in several post-Godhra communal riots cases to come up for trial.

Names of some newly-appointed public prosecutors and some senior ones handling crucial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) cases have recently cropped up for their alleged proximity to the saffron outfits, especially after the public outcry over acquittal of 21 accused in the Best Bakery carnage.

Chetan Shah, said to be a staunch VHP supporter is one such public prosecutor from the city, who was recently appointed to handle some of the post-Godhra communal riot cases, sources said.

Sources told PTI that Shah himself was chargesheeted in a case of rioting in 1987 during which nine people of the minority community were killed. He was, however, acquitted.

"How can the state government appoint an advocate as a public prosecutor and that too in such sensitive cases when he has had a criminal record in a communal matter?" asked a senior High Court lawyer who did not wish to be named....

Sources added that other prominent advocates who were known for their proximity to the ruling political party and the VHP were Raghuvir Pandya, who conducted proceedings in the Best Bakery case and had earlier fought the Vadodara Municipal elections with the BJP support.

Another name that has emerged is additional public prosecutor from Vadodara, Sanjay Vyas, who is nephew of VHP city unit president Ajay Joshi....

Says retired Justice BJ Diwan, "Though it is the prerogative of the state government to appoint these prosecutors, there is a fear that there may be persecution instead of prosecution in the cases."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

SEE ALSO:

* Gujarat: lengthening shadows of Trident - By Ram Puniyani (1-15 May 2004, Milli Gazette)
http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/01-15May04-Print-Edition/0105200469.htm

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A system on trial - Editorial (11 Aug 2003, Indian Express)

The Best Bakery case highlights the need for new changes and use of old provisions

"We are prima facie of the opinion that the criminal justice delivery system is not in sound health." So said a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by the chief justice on Friday, as it dealt with the NHRC's special leave petition on the Best Bakery case....

But we also need to ensure existing laws and processes work. In the Best Bakery case, Judge Mahida failed to avail himself of statutory remedies that exist: Such as the power to hold proceedings in camera, or to recall and re-examine witnesses, or to order further examination. No, we do not need to invent a new justice system. Most of all, we need to keep alive our sense of scandal at the miscarriage of justice, each and every time it occurs.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=29337

SEE ALSO:

* Insights into the riot system - By Iqbal A Ansari (Jun 19 - Jul 02 2004, Frontline - Vol 21, Iss 13)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2113/stories/20040702001107400.htm

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Speedy Injustice - Editorial (30 Jun 2003, Times of India)

India is evidently a democracy... As such, it's a reasonable expectation that this simple routine - the so-called due process of law - will be carried out here in all criminal cases. On the face of it, this is exactly what happened in the infamous Best Bakery case in Vadodara in which 14 people were burnt alive in post-Godhra mob violence.

Best Bakery was among the worst cases of violence in the aftermath of Godhra. It was also the first to come up for hearing. Long before the 44-day trial ended, it was apparent that the case was something of a sham: Of the 120 witnesses listed by the prosecution, more than a third never made it to the box. Of the 73 who did, more than half turned hostile.

At the end of the fast-court trial, however, the case has been summarily thrown out and all 21 accused released because "there was not an iota of evidence" against them. Worse, the judge has accused the police of fabricating evidence to frame "innocents". The verdict implies that the police failed - quite deliberately - to apprehend those actually involved in carrying out the horrific outrage.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49893.cms

SEE ALSO:

* Kin of accused set to celebrate verdict - By Abhishek Kapoor (27 Jun 2003, Indian Express)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=26554

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Reverse swing - Editorial (30 Jan 2004, Hindustan Times)

...the recent tendency in the state to gloss over unpalatable facts. As much was evident from a special court's decision in the Best Bakery case to accept the changes in testimony by witnesses without probing the reason and thereby letting the accused go scot-free, even though the phenomenon of witnesses turning hostile is ordinarily bound to raise suspicions about intimidation. The high court's subsequent endorsement of this decision by the lower court is also noteworthy. The effect is to draw a veil over wrong-doing.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

SEE ALSO:

* Modi government interfering in riots cases: Congress (25 Feb 2006, NewKerala.com)
http://www.newkerala.com/

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Witnesses turn hostile
Turning hostile: The story of Zahira - By Abhishek Kapoor (20 May 2003, Indian Express)

The judge asked her if she could identify any one of the accused lined up in the court. She gave the lot a cursory look at them and then, without a blink, said "No." This was Zahira Sheikh, complainant and key witness in to the gruesome Best Bakery murders, which claimed 14 lives in the post-Godhra frenzy. Nine of the dead were her relatives.

"I shall not marry till the accused are adequately punished," Zahira had told me when I had met her just a few months ago for a piece I was doing to mark the first anniversary of the riots. "After tens of panchanamas, dozens of visits to police stations and scores of appearances before government officials, I'e nothing left to lose," she stated, with steel in her eyes...

The public prosecutor flashed a wry smile towards the group of defence lawyers before starting the cross examination. A very rare sight it must be when the advocates on both sides nod agreement in public. The cross examination continued for about 15 minutes and, then, it was all over. The defence counsels refused to ask any questions and sat happily in their chairs, their job already done by the prosecution. Zahira Sheikh then ran out of the court room and met the supportive local BJP MLA, after which she was not allowed to speak to anyone... The MLA who was the part of the mob baying for blood, is today her protector.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=24203

SEE ALSO:

* Key eyewitness Nafitullah goes missing (04 Nov 2004, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/910098.cms
* Gujarat riots: Best Bakery witness turns hostile (19 May 2003, Indian Express)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=24186
* Best Bakery case: Protect witnesses, says Amnesty (3 Sep 2003, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/163923.cms

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A just authority - Editorial (20 Sep 2003, Asian Age)

The Gujarat government has finally admitted that witnesses in the Best Bakery case turned hostile because they were either coerced or won over. It has further assured the Supreme Court that it will amend its appeal challenging the acquittal of the accused, seek retrial of the case and a direction for further investigation to collect more evidence. The Supreme Court extracted this admission from the state government after making it very clear that it was not at all happy about the manner in which the case had been disposed of by the Gujarat government. In fact, the chief secretary of Gujarat, Praveen Kanubhai Laheri, and the director general of police K. Chakraborty were both summoned to the apex court and questioned by the Bench as to why the witnesses had turned hostile. Chief justice V.N. Khare, and Justices Brijesh Kumar and S.B. Sinha constituted the Bench that has shaken the Gujarat government into admitting the truth. The apex court has again demonstrated the impartiality of the judiciary, and its power to protect the people of India as well as her Constitution....

The media has carried detailed reports of how witnesses did not depose in the case, and those who did speak out were terrified for their lives. The Gujarat government had denied harassing or coercing witnesses, but the manner in which they all disappeared from view raised serious questions about the state administration, in particular the role of the police.

http://www.asianage.com/

SEE ALSO:

* Turning Hostile - Zaheers's Evidence in the Sessions Court (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=427&issue_id=16

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'Trembling with fear, we lied in court' - By Abhishek Kapoor & Ayesha Khan (6 Jul 2003, Indian Express)

'Kaanpte kaanpte jhooth bola tha court mein'

Barely one week after the court set free all 21 accused in the Best Bakery massacre in the Gujarat riots, Sehrunissa Sheikh, one of the main witnesses and wife of the bakery owner, has come out and told The Sunday Express that she lied in court ‘‘trembling with fear’’ for her life. She is still afraid of being killed, she says, but if she gets ‘‘support,’’ she will speak the truth.

Sehrunissa’s startling admission, in a tape-recorded interview, puts a question mark on the entire case....

The Sunday Express met Sehrunissa, 50, at her house in the Ekta Nagar slum on the outskirts of the city. ‘‘Dehelte dehelte kaanpte kaanpte jhooth bola tha court mein,’’ she said. (Trembling with fear, we lied in court).

And she says she wasn’t the only one to do so. In fact, out of the 73 witnesses who deposed, as many as 41 turned hostile. ‘‘Just as we lied, others also lied. Everyone lied. Who knows why? They may also have been under pressure. The pressure must have come from where we used to stay (Hanuman Tekri). Nobody supported us.’’

She doesn’t name BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava, who accompanied Zaheera on the day she turned hostile but keeps referring to a ‘‘daadhiwala aadmi’’(a bearded man)....

But Sehrunissa said the pressure was intense: ‘‘Apne ko dhamki bhi aayi ki tum bole to tumko yahan aane nahin denge. Mar denge. (We received threats that if we speak we will not be allowed to come here. We would be killed).’’

She said some of the threats came through another critical witness in the case, a local scrap-dealer Lal Mohammed, who also turned hostile.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=27106

SEE ALSO:

* 'They Said They'll Kill Me' - Zaheera Shaikh Interview - By Priyanka Kakodkar (14 Jul 2003, Outlook)
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20030714&fname=zaheera&sid=1

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Stoke the embers - Editorial (8 Sep 2003, Hindustan Times)

Nothing has quite demonstrated the Modi administration's indifferent attitude to the plight of the minorities more starkly than its request to the Supreme Court to modify its earlier directive on protecting the riot witnesses.

The government has expressed its inability to provide such protection on the grounds that it cannot spare enough policemen for the job since they have to be deployed in the "large number of villages, towns and cities' which are "communally sensitive". This acknowledgement has revealed the chief minister" exercise in deception when he wrote to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in protest against the National Human Rights Commission's unflattering references to the Best Bakery case. In that letter, Mr Modi had wondered why such a fuss was being made over "some stray incidents" - his characterisation of the riots which lasted for a month and half and claimed 2,000 lives. Yet, it is now admitted that a "large number of villages, towns and cities" are still experiencing the aftermath of those "stray incidents".

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

SEE ALSO:

* Sister-in-law says Zahira is lying (20 Jul 2003, Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/86102.cms

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Secular crusader - By Gayatri Ramanathan (13 Mar 2006, Business Standard)

A few months after the Gujarat riots, President A PJ Abdul Kalam was touring the relief camps for riot victims, with Chief Minister Narendra Modi, when a burkha-clad woman walked up to him and quietly handed him a copy of the March 2002 issue of the Mumbai-based journal Communalism Combat. The 150-page issue was the first detailed documentation of how violence was perpetrated across Gujarat’s 19 districts. The co-editor of the journal, Teesta Setalvad, had single-handedly documented the violence. Four years later, the case has come a full circle as one of the star witnesses against the Modi government, Zahira Sheikh, stands in the dock as a “self-condemned liar” and has drawn a sentence of one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000. And Setalvad, after many threats of death and violence, stands vindicated by the courts....

The 42-year-old journalist-turned-activist’s fight against communalism began way back in 1983, when she and her husband Javed Anand formed a pressure group, Journalists Against Communalism. After Mumbai’s riots, Teesta, the daughter of a lawyer and social activist, started Communalism Combat. Later she formed Citizens for Justice and Peace, with prominent Mumbaikars such as Javed Akhtar and Alyque Padamsee to fight the battle against communalism. She is also the winner of several awards, including the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding woman journalist and the Dutch Prince Claus award of 2002. Setalvad’s focus now is on getting the other 13 cases transferred out of Gujarat. She sees the judgement in the Best Bakery case as the beginning of an overhaul of the system. “These cases are not just about the Gujarat violence. They are also about bringing about systemic change. They are about the root problems plaguing the system — of witness protection, police reforms and the role of the state public prosecutors.”

http://www.business-standard.com/
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Acquittal, HC judgment and national outcry
Gujarat riots: All 21 accused in Vadodara's Best Bakery carnage acquitted (27 Jul 2003, Rediff)

All the 21 accused in the Best Bakery carnage in Vadodara in the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat were on Friday acquitted by a local court for lack of evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge H U Mahida feared the police may have implicated innocents.

This is the first verdict in a case relating to the post-Godhra communal violence.

Twelve persons were burnt alive in the bakery and two were reported missing on March 1, 2002 during a bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal after 59 people, most of them returning from Ayodhya, were burnt alive on board the Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on February 27 the same year...

Nobody from the complainants' side was present in the court premises when the judgment was pronounced.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jun/27guj.htm

SEE ALSO:

* We, The Guilty - By Sundeep Dougal (27 Jun 2003, Outlook)
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?sid=1&fodname=20030627&fname=shame
* Bad dough rising - By Prem Shankar Jha (18 Jul 2003, Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/
* Naked Subversion of Justice - Editorial (6 Jul 2003, People's Democracy)
http://pd.cpim.org/2003/0706/07062003_edit.htm

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Look What Best Bakery Judge Also Dished Out - By Manoj Mitta (20 Jul 2003, Counter Currents)

What's behind communal massacres like the Best Bakery? H U Mahida, the honourable judge, who acquitted all the 21 accused in the case has an answer, in fact several answers: the British policy of divide and rule; the emphasis on industrialisation at the expense of villages; frustration among "meritorious" people because of reservations....

What went unread is most revealing. For, nowhere in his entire judgment does Mahida deal with the possibility of prime witness Zaheera Sheikh and her mother turning hostile out of fear. On July 6, Zaheer's mother Sehrunissa first told The Sunday Express how she lied in court afraid for her life.

Instead, from the 17th page on, Mahida holds forth on history and society in a bid to bolster his verdict. However, he does admit that not one conviction in such a gruesome case "is beyond the comprehension of the common man."

Consider these:

- He argues that he could not have done anything to save the case. Why? Because under his judicial system "bequeathed by the British," a court goes "entirely by evidence on record." From here, he takes a leap, defining a court in very unusual terms. "The courts are," he says, "truly speaking, evidence courts and not courts of justice."

In an apparent attack on Nehru and his colleagues, Mahida says: 'They accepted the partition and waited for the Britishers to go so that they can jump onto the kursi and, neglecting burning issues, become world figures."

In a further swipe, Mahida says those leaders made "a major mistake by blindly copying the Soviet system in a bid to make India a highly industrialised state.... Villages started to crumble and cities began to overflow with people."

http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-mitta200703.htm

SEE ALSO:

* High Court’s judgment on Best Bakery case has heightened the tragedy of trial court into a farce (15 Jan 2004, PUCL)
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2004/best-bakery-farce.htm
* Judgment of the Gujarat High Court (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=439&issue_id=16

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Most Wanted: Justice (30 Jun 2003, Indian Express)

Gujarat's Best Bakery case shows the criminal justice system at its worst

Only one fact survived the 44-day trial in a fast track court. The fact of the carnage. Fourteen innocent people were burnt alive for sure, that day at the Best Bakery near Vadodara, in a Gujarat convulsed by riots. The rest is a phantom mob. At the end of a case in which it often seemed that the defence counsels' job was being done better by the prosecution, in which the prime witness was escorted in and out of court proceedings by a "benefactor" MLA before she turned hostile and untraceable, and in which other hostile witnesses identified the accused as their "saviours" when they didn't refuse to identify them at all, justice has been reduced to a ghost of itself. It will return to haunt the nation....

The tidy acquittal of the accused in this case is a betrayal of faith. It must sound a nation-wide alarm. There wasn't even "an iota of evidence", lamented the judge, to convict the 21 accused. It must be asked whether it was because the witnesses were silenced by fear and coercion. Or due to the deliberately botched investigation that, as trial judge H.U. Mahida pointed out in his bitter 24-page judgement, is a common feature of all riot cases ... Gujarat 2002 must be rescued from ending up like Delhi 1984 or Bombay 1993. Because the burden of unrequited justice is becoming too heavy for the nation.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=26698

SEE ALSO:

* Fear is the key - Editorial (9 Jul 2003, Economic Times)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/66020.cms
* Law and disorder - By K G Kannabiran (19 Aug 2003, The Statesman)
http://www.thestatesman.net/

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NHRC pans Best Bakery acquittals (02 Jul 2003, Rediff)

The acquittal of all the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case is prima facie a 'miscarriage of justice', the National Human Rights Commission chairman, Justice A S Anand, said on Wednesday.

"The Gujarat government must appeal against the verdict and if it does not, the relatives of the victims, complainants, can also seek permission of the court and file an appeal against the acquittal," he told NDTV 24x7 channel...

About the role of the police during the post-Godhra riots, the NHRC chief said, "It is under question because it was one of those cases that the commission had earlier recommended to be handed over to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation)."

Asked whether the case should be handed over to the CBI, Anand said, "The high court can direct it. Even the Gujarat government can make a request to the high court."

Asked whether there is a need for fresh inquiry into the case, he said, "Yes, certainly."...

The NHRC chief regretted that the biggest problem in ensuring justice for riot victims is lack of political will, and said, "If the state government wants it, then justice can always be done."

http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jul/02guj.htm

SEE ALSO:

* Judgment of the Sessions Court (Apr - May 2004, Combat Law - Vol 3, Iss 1)
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=428&issue_id=16
* India: Best Bakery case - concerns for justice (9 Jul 2003, Amnesty International)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200182003?open&of=ENG-IND

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The volley of fear - Editorial (8 Jul 2003, Indian Express)

"Trembling with fear, we lied in court," admits Sehrunissa Sheikh, a week after all 21 accused in the Best Bakery case were acquitted by a fast-track trial court. How strange those words sound. Trembling with fear?

In court? Correct us if we are wrong. Isn't a courtroom supposed to be a safe haven for the wronged, isn't it supposed be the appointed site in a civil society where victims can air their testimonies without fear or foreboding and seek justice? Isn't is supposed to be a forum where the fearful can claim reassurance? ...

To understand what Sehrunissa's words mean for our criminal justice system, remember that those legal arguments are tossed back and forth in an atmosphere surcharged with fear. Remember that the reassuring rhythm of legalese is often not carried beyond the courtroom's hallowed precincts by victims of violence. If outside there is intimidation, beyond the safe enclave of the court also lies fear. That must be the lesson for all those who profess to be seeking justice - whether they be in the police or whether they be concerned citizens. As a host of other Gujarat riots cases proceed in court, as many other cases related to the 1984 and 1993 riots drag on, witnesses must be re-assured - with physical security and legal back-up.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=27166

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