Best Bakery is finally before highest court

This was during the resumed hearing of a batch of petitions by the National Human Rights Commission and others seeking different reliefs in the post-Godhra riot cases in the state. The bench, comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia, also directed the Gujarat government to supply relevant files to the amicus curiae in the case, Harish Salve, within three weeks.

The matter will come up for hearing again on February 27. The trial court acquitted them and on the directions of the Supreme Court, an amended appeal was filed in the High Court seeking retrial of the case. However, the High court dismissed the amended appeal and upheld the acquittal.

Zaheera, in her petition, alleged that the case on hand was a classic case of miscarriage of justice at all levels. She said that the ‘‘the investigation was defective, the witnesses were not protected, public prosecutor glossed over his job of effective representation of the victims and the judge mechanically applied his mind to the facts of the case.’’

She further contended that the prosecution witnesses were threatened throughout by the accused and their relatives and they had ultimately succumed to their threats, especially because some of them had close relatives in the ruling party. Citing this, she said that this is a fit case for a re-trial.

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