Witnesses did not make any reference to accused in Best bakery case: Mumbai court

The accused, Harshad Solanki (42) and Mafat Gohil (40), who were absconding during the previous trial held in Mumbai, underwent a separate trial for the communal violence at Best bakery on March 1-2, 2002, in which 14 persons were killed. The prosecution had examined three injured witnesses, one of whom had identified one of the accused but did not know his name, while the other two did not identify either of them.

The court said that the first witness had not attributed any role to the accused and only identifying him is not sufficient to prove his involvement in the incident.

“It is material to note that (the witness) while identification, has not stated a word as to which act the said accused did at that time… he has identified one of the accused persons wearing khakee/brown shirt presuming his presence in the unlawful assembly of the morning incident… same is not sufficient unless any overt act leading to commission of crime is attributed to him,” additional sessions judge M G Deshpande said in his detailed order.

It said that the three witnesses have shifted out from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh and there is nothing to show that they are under pressure or they were pressured by the accused.

The court also said that even if it was assumed that a sword and iron pipe were recovered from the two accused as per the evidence, there is nothing to show that they were carrying them at the relevant time when the incident took place. “…none of the injured eyewitnesses has referred anything about the identity of these accused persons that they were authors of the injuries sustained by them which were caused by the sword and iron pipe herein,” the court said.

The court also considered the judgment passed during the previous trial and the appeal filed before the Bombay High Court. It said that it could not refer to some of the witnesses whose testimonies were discarded by the higher courts.

Twenty-one people, including Solanki and Gohil, were arrested and a fasttrack court in Vadodara acquitted all of them in 2003. In 2004, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in the case and directed it to be held outside Gujarat to ensure fairness of justice. They were rearrested subsequently and faced trial before the Mumbai court since 2019.