Mumbai Court Clears Two of the Charges in the Best Bakery Case
Two defendants in the Best Bakery case, Harshad Raoji Bhai Solanki and Mafat Manilal Gohil, were exonerated by a Mumbai court on Tuesday.
Charges against Solanki and Gohil included attempted murder, murder, and evidence destruction under several IPC provisions.
The other two defendants, Ramesh alias Rinku Gohil and Jayantibhai Gohil, passed away in custody during the case.
Best Bakery Case:
During the Gujarat carnage in 2002, at least 14 people were burned alive in Vadodara.
Two days after the Godhra tragedy, on March 1, 2002, at about 8.30 p.m., a crowd assembled outside the residential building and bakery and set it on fire. Overnight, several people perished in the fire. Those who made it until dawn were forced to descend from the building’s terrace and assaulted with clubs and swords. Some people suffered injuries and died away.
Case History:
In the 2019 trial, which began with the deposition of ten witnesses, a baker employee was among them.
The Bombay High Court cleared five additional defendants in 2012 while upholding the life sentences given to four others.
Sanjay Thakkar, Dinesh Rajbhar, Jeetu Chauhan, and Shanabhai Baria were found guilty of the murders in 2012 by the Bombay High Court.
The testimony of Zahira Shaikh and her whole family was heard in a closed-door hearing by the court. The Supreme Court’s decision to mandate a new trial and relocate the case to Mumbai was actually prompted by a petition from Zahira.
Nine defendants were found guilty by the special Mumbai court in 2006. The prosecution claimed that the defendants were a part of the 1,200-person mob that assaulted the lone Muslim family in the Hanuman Tekri neighbourhood of Vadodara—the family of the late Habibullah Khan, Zahira’s father and the owner of Best Bakery—during the Gujarat riots.
at 2003, the case was first heard at a Vadodara court, when all defendants were found not guilty.
The primary witness, Zahira Sheikh, had become combative and said that she was unable to recognise the defendants. The Supreme Court mandated a new trial outside of Gujarat in April 2004.
While Mafat was taken into custody by the NIA from his house in Gujarat in March 2013, Harshad was taken into custody by the Rajasthan police in 2010. Two other people who were running away and were later apprehended died in custody.
Because they were away and mistakenly thought to be evading arrest, the pair claimed they were uninformed of the retrial. They said they were kept in Jaipur after being detained by the CBI in connection with another issue.
They were presented in court in Mumbai in connection with the bakery bomb case in December 2013.
