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Witnesses were won over: Gujarat Govt
Our Legal Correspondent

Shaken by the criticism by the apex court, Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the Gujarat Government, gave a commitment to the court that in the amended appeal before the High Court the government would make a plea for seeking permission for fresh probe, re-trial and producing additional evidence in the case, the apex court allowed the government go ahead with the appeal within a week.

Gujarat Chief Secretary P.K. Lahiri (left) and Director-General of Police K. Chakrabarthi coming out of the Supreme Court in connection with the Best Bakery case in New Delhi on Friday. — PTI photos

The two top officials of the state civil and police administration were summoned today by the court to explain the reasons for the lapse on the part of prosecution and the government in providing protection to witnesses as 37 of the 43 witnesses, including key witness Zahira Sheikh, had retracted their statements in the court.

This had resulted in acquittal of all 21 accused in the incident in which 14 persons were burnt alive in Vadodara’s Best Bakery, including Zahira’s father and six other relatives.

To a pointed query to Mr Chakravarty by the Bench, having Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar and Mr Justice S B Sinha as the other two judges, whether he was aware that during the course of trial, witnesses, one after the other, were turning hostile and what action he had taken, the DGP said ‘‘I had asked the Police Commissioner of Baroda about it and he told me that witnesses appeared to have been either coerced or won over.’’

When asked further by the Chief Justice that as a police chief what steps were taken by him regarding re-examining the witnesses, he said no such steps were taken because he came to know of it much latter and the government was by then contemplating to file an appeal in the High Court.

In reply to a specific query by the Bench to the Chief Secretary whether the Gujarat Government was willing to order fresh investigation into the case by an independent agency like the CBI, Mr Laheri said ‘‘I have no instruction to say anything on it. This requires approval of the government.’’

But Mr Rohtagi said there was no need to engage any other agency as the state police was competent to ‘re-investigate’ into the matter.

But the court warned the state government that it must not commit the same mistake as had been committed by it while conducting the trial before the Sessions Judge.

‘‘We don’t want that the same thing happens again in the High Court also. The matter would be seriously prosecuted as it should be done under the law,’’ the Chief Justice warned.

The court was hearing a petition by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking a fresh probe and re-trial into the Best Bakery case and trial outside Gujarat in nine other major cases.

The court directed the state government counsel to file an affidavit before it about the steps taken in this direction as well as the copy of the amended appeal it intended to file before the High Court, by October 9 when the matter would be taken up for hearing again.

NHRC counsel P P Rao emphasised that there should be fresh probe by independent agency like the CBI in the case as the Gujarat Police under the present government was not expected to do justice.

Senior advocate K T S Tulsi, appearing on behalf of the accused persons, questioned the NHRC’s locus standi in the case and said ‘interference’ through a public interest litigation (PIL) in a criminal case was not permitted even if ‘millions of questions of law are involved’ because no third party ‘interference’ was allowed in the adjudication of a criminal case.