Justice denied, justice restored: Nine life terms for Best Bakery

That acquittal by the fast-track court in June 2003 had sparked off outrage—the judge had severely indicted the prosecution—and days after the verdict, Sehrunissa Sheikh, who lost nine relatives in the attack, had broken her silence to The Indian Express to say that she and her daughter Zaheera had “lied in court, trembling with fear.”

This set off a chain of events that led the Supreme Court to transfer the case out of the state in what came to be seen as a touchstone in judicial activism as a response to what the court called a justice system “abused, misused and mutilated by subterfuge.”

“The modern-day Neros were looking elsewhere when innocent children and helpless women were burning and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime could be protected,” the Supreme Court bench had said while allowing appeals by Sehrunissa and Zaheera on April 13, 2004. Ironically, Zaheera and her mother, who admitted to lying in court under duress, later went back on their statements giving a clean chit to the accused.

Taking a strong note of these flip-flops of Zaheera Sheikh and her four other family members, judge Abhay Thipsay also issued notices to them as to why ‘‘each of them should not be tried for giving false evidence and punished for the offence contemplated under section 193 (fabricating false evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.’’

All the five members of the Sheikh family, who owned Best Bakery, have been directed to file their replies by March 20. Zaheera, her mother Sehrunnisa Habibulla Sheikh, her brothers Nasibulla Habibulla Sheikh, Nafitulla Habibulla Sheikh and sister Saherabanu Habibulla Sheikh face imprisonment for a maximum of seven years and are also liable to fine.

Those convicted were: Rajubhai Baria, Pankaj Gosai, Bahadursinh Chauhan, Jagdish Rajput, Dinesh Rajbhar, Shanabhai Baria, Shailesh Tadvi, Lalo Devjibhai Vasava and Sanjay Thakker.

The court acquitted Yogesh alias Laxmansinh Varma, Harish alias Tino Gosai, Mahendra, Pratapsinh Solanki, Yasin Khokar, Tulsi Tadvi, Kamlesh Tadvi and Ravi Chauhan. The prosecution examined about 75 witnesses in the trial which lasted for more than a year. Those convicted for murder and sentenced to life have also been convicted for several other offences and heavy fines levied on them, a part of which would be paid as compensation to those injured in the incident, the judge said.

The order was delivered in a packed court room at the Mazgaon courts here. Before pronouncing his verdict, Judge Thipsay called out each of the accused and explained them the charges under which they convicted.

In the re-trial, which began on October 4, 2004, a total of 76 witnesses were examined of which nine turned hostile. Of these nine, five belong to the Sheikh family. Among the important witnesses examined by the court were Zaheera’s sister-in-law Yasminbanu and four other persons — Taufel Ahmed Habibulla Siddiqui, Raees Khan Nankau Khan, Shehzad Khan Hasan Khan Pathan and Sailun Hasan Khan Pathan who were present when the place was set on fire by a violent mob on night of March 1, 2003.

Incidentally, none of these five witnesses was examined during the trial conducted by the fast-track court at Vadodara which acquitted all the 21 accused persons. However, in their deposition before Judge Thipsay, each of the witnesses narrated the incident and identified the accused in court during the trial. Before the sentence was pronounced, special public prosecutor Manjula Rao appealed the court to award maximum punishment to the accused. However, Judge Thipsay informed that specific roles of accused have not been able to ascertain during the trial.

“I am more happy that Zaheera and her family was issued a perjury notice. It will be an example to be followed’’ said Rao after the verdict was pronounced. ‘‘I am completly satisfied,’’ reacted Senior Police Inspector P P Kanani who had investigated the case and said, ‘‘The judgment has been delivered on the same chargesheet which was filed at the Vadodara court and no further investigations were conducted or no new evidence collected.”