Best Bakery: Prosecution,defence conclude arguments

The incident dates back to March 1,2002,in the aftermath of the riots triggered by the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra,when 14 persons including members of a Shaikh family were killed after a a mob attacked the Best Bakery in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara.

The Best Bakery carnage was the first riot-related case to be moved out of Gujarat to ensure a fair trial. Following the Supreme court’s direction,the trial was shifted to Mumbai.

The convicts — Rajubhai Baria,Pankaj Gosai,Bahadursinh Chauhan,Jagdish Rajput,Dinesh Rajbhar,Shanabhai Baria,Shailesh Tadvi,Suresh Vasava and Sanjay Thakker — have appealed against the trial court’s decision stating that they were falsely implicated in the case.

The prosecutors,Manjula Rao and Jayesh Yagnik argued that the accused had entered upto the first floor of the building and witnesses have identified and given accounts of their specific roles during the attack.

The defence team led by senior counsel Adhik Shirodkar,has contended in the HC that the accused have been framed in the case as the bakery was allegedly torched by a mob and had been burning for over 12 hours. Shirodkar said that the structure — consisting of a ground floor,first floor and a terrace — was on fire and the accused could not have entered it.

The trial court had also acquitted eight other accused in the case and issued perjury notices to key witness Zahira Shaikh and other witnesses in the case for back-tracking from their testimonies. In 2006,Shaikh,her mother Sehrunisa and sister Saherabano were convicted for perjury.