Mumbai court acquits two in 2002 Gujarat Best Bakery riot case

Mumbai: A sessions court here on Tuesday acquitted two accused in the case related to the 2002 Best Bakery massacre in Gujarat where 14 people had been killed during the post-Godhra riots.

Harshad Solanki and Mafat Gohil were acquitted of all charges by Additional Sessions Judge M G Deshpande.

During the earlier phase of the trial, eyewitnesses had specified the role played by some of the accused, based on which they were convicted. No such specific role was attributed to the present accused, the court said.

On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra train burning incident, a mob attacked and burnt down Best Bakery in Vadodara, killing 14 people. The mob's target was the Muslims who had taken shelter inside, including the Shaikh family that ran the bakery.

In 2003, all 21 people who faced trial in the case were acquitted by a court in Vadodara. The verdict was confirmed by the Gujarat High Court.

Zahirabibi Shaikh, one of the victims, along with an NGO moved the Supreme Court against the judgment.

The SC in 2004 ordered reinvestigation by the police and a fresh trial in Maharashtra instead of Gujarat.

The sessions court in Mumbai convicted nine out of 17 people accused of murder in February 2006. In 2012, the Bombay High Court acquitted five of those convicted for want of evidence but upheld the conviction of four others who had been sentenced to life by the trial court.

Solanki and Gohil were shown absconding in the Best Bakery case as they were facing trial in the Ajmer blast case.

They were produced before the Mumbai court in 2017 to face trial in this case after the conclusion of the blast case trial. Two other accused died during the course of the retrial and the case against them abated.

Advocate Prakash Salsinkar, Solanki and Gohil's lawyer, said the acquittal was expected as there was no substantial evidence against the two.

"The eyewitnesses in the case did not recognize the accused during the trial. It means that the accused had no role in that riot," he said.

Both are currently lodged at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai and likely to walk out of prison in a day or two after the completion of formalities, the lawyer added.

The Best Bakery massacre was part of the communal violence that erupted in Gujarat after a mob set fire to a coach of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra on February 27, 2002, killing 56 persons.