M A I N   N E W S

Gujarat may file petition in Best Bakery case

Kancheepuram, August 2
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today indicated that his government may file a petition challenging the acquittal of all the accused in the Best Bakery case.

“These (limitation period) 60 days are not over. Only 30 days are over and these 60 days are given to verify the case. Our Advocate-General is looking into the matter and the state has 60 days,” he told reporters here when asked what the Gujarat Government was doing in the wake of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) approaching the Supreme Court for retrial in Best Bakery and four other cases.

Mr Modi was speaking after meeting the Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi.

On the NHRC decision, Mr Modi said the matter was in the Supreme Court and he respected each and every democratic institution of the country.

He refused to be drawn into the controversial Ayodhya issue saying he was “not concerned” about it, as several BJP leaders were handling the matter.

“There are so many leaders attending to it,” he remarked when reporters asked him whether he favoured a court verdict or a negotiated settlement to the Ayodhya issue.

The Gujarat Chief Minister said the death of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Paramhans Ramchandra Das was a loss, not just to the Ayodhya movement, but to the entire Hindu community.

“The deaths of such mahants remove an essential strength from the fabric of the nation,” he added.

Mr Modi’s statement in the Best Bakery case comes just days after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) appealed to the Supreme Court for a retrial of the case and the shifting of other major riot cases out of Gujarat. The move has been criticised by the BJP.

AHMEDABAD: Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court today dismissed the special criminal appeal filed by Maulana Hussain Umarji, the prime conspirator of the Godhra train carnage, challenging the rejection of his bail by a Special POTA court.

The division Bench of Justice N.G. Nandi and Justice R.R. Tripathi dismissed Umarji’s appeal after upholding the prosecution’s arguments that the “evidence” against the accused was not “hearsay” and totally admissible under provisions of Section 30 and Section 60 of the Indian Evidence Act, prosecution sources said. — PTI