M A I N   N E W S

Retry Best Bakery case
NHRC moves Supreme Court
Tripti Nath
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 31
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which had termed the acquittal of all 21 accused in the Best Bakery case as “miscarriage of justice’’ today petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial of the case outside Gujarat.

The commission has also filed a separate application before the Supreme Court for the transfer of four other cases related to incidents in Godhra, Chamanpura (Gulbarga society), Naroda Patiya and Sadarpura in Mehsana district for trial outside Gujarat.

Twelve persons were charred to death on March 1 last year on the Best Bakery premises in Vadodara during a bandh call given by the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad to protest against the killing of 59 kar sevaks near Godhra railway station.

In a statement issued here today, the NHRC said, “Deep concern about the damage to the credibility of the criminal justice delivery system and negation of human rights and report of its team’’ had prompted it to file a special leave petition under Article 136 of the Constitution.

The commission has prayed for setting aside the impugned judgement of the trial court in the Best Bakery case and sought directions for further investigation by an independent agency and retrial of the case in a competent court outside Gujarat.

Zaheera Sheikh, the key witness in the Best Bakery case, had knocked the door of the National Human Rights Commission on July 11 for its intervention in reopening the case. In a statement before the Full Commission, Zaheera said she had resiled in the trial court from her previous statements due to threats to her life and that of her family members.

The commission has said whenever a criminal goes unpunished, society at large suffers because the victims feel demoralised and the criminals are encouraged. “It, therefore, becomes the duty of the court to use all its powers to unearth the truth and render justice so that criminals are punished.’’

Zaheera kin ready to depose

Vadodara, July 31
With the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) moving the Supreme Court to reopen the Vadodara Best Bakery case, prime witness Zaheera Sheikh’s sister-in-law Yasmin Bano today said she was ready to depose to plead for the 21 accused.

Yasmin, who sustained burn injuries along with her two-year-old daughter during the mob attack on Best Bakery on March 1, 2002, and was subsequently hospitalised, said she was opposed to NHRC’s move seeking retrial of the case outside Gujarat as she knew that the accused were innocent.

Talking to UNI over phone from her maternal uncle Ilmuddin Amir’s Chota Udepur residence, Yasmin alleged that her mother-in-law Sehrunissa and Zaheera had implicated local Congress Councillor Chandrakant Shrivastav and his cousin Madhu Shrivastav, a BJP MLA, in a bid to extract money. — UNI