Thread by @SaffronDiaries

Thread: The #Massacre at Best Bakery
On March 01, 2002, the Best Bakery area was attacked and burned down by a deranged mob of #RSS situated in Hanuman Tekri. The Best Bakery case was a symbol of the 2002 #Gujarat carnage.

Its controversial nature attracted the allegation of the State Government, implying the government’s compliance in it. During the incident, a mob targeted the Sheikh family who ran the bakery and had taken refuge inside...,

...resulting in the deaths of 14 (11 #Muslims including family members and 3 Hindu employees of the bakery). This case has come to symbolize the carnage in 2002# Gujrat riots (and the alleged State Government complicity in it) that followed the #Godhra train massacre.

All the 21 accused were acquitted by the court due to shoddy police work and issues with evidence. It was the first case to be tried with respect to the Godhra riots. The case was tried at a fast court by the Vadodara session court judge Hemantsinh U Mahida.

The case hinged on the first hand evidence presented in two FIR that had been presented that of Raizkhan Amin Mohammed Pathan and of Zaheera Sheikh. In addition, evidence was provided by a large number of witnesses whose evidence was secondary (indirect or hearsay).

2003
May: Zaheera (the star witness) and her mother along with her brothers contradicted their statements. Zaheera, who first claimed to be an eye-witness later retracted her statement saying she was on the terrace at the time of the incident and did not witness the accused.

July: Due to lack of evidence, all 21 accused were acquitted. Justice H.U. Mahida was afraid that the police may have implicated innocents. He delivered a 24-page judgement. He accepted that the attack was proved beyond doubt but stated that due to lack of any evidence....

...it was not appropriate to convict the accused.
Zaheera, in another interview, revealed that she lied in the court due to coercion by Bharatiya Janata Party (#BJP) MLA Madhu Srivastava and his cousin. This was printed in the Sunday Express.

She wanted a re-trial of the case outside #Gujarat for a free and fair trial. Following this, the #NHRC visited #Vadodara to review the Best Bakery case papers and moved a Special Leave Petition suggesting a fresh trial outside the State.

2004
The #SupremeCourt in April ordered the retrial to take place in #Maharashtra. Justice Aroraiswamy, as well as Justice Arijit Pasayat, mandated this order. The trial began in October. The eye-witnesses started testifying. One of them, that is, Zaheera said...,

....“If I don’t lie as directed by Teesta, then these people will get me and my family members killed.” She continued to explain how after the acquittal of the 21 accused, two #Muslims entered into her residence and asked to change her statement.

They took her along with her brother to @TeestaSetalvad; Teesta held her captive in Mumbai and made her sign legal papers that resulted in the matter going to the SC against her will.
In November, Zaheera missed court summons as she went into hiding.

Her cousin Yasmin however, identified 11 accused. Zaheera was initially not chosen for the examination despite being the prime witness. Her brother, Nasibullah, stated that he was hit in the head resulting in his unconsciousness and that is

why he could not see the on-going incident at the bakery. This statement was contradictory to his earlier statement.
2005
In August, a committee was appointed by the SC regarding the Best Bakery case. The committed heavily and blatantly criticized Zaheera calling her a “liar”

as she kept on giving contradictory statements all throughout the case. Her statements could not have been trusted by anyone. She was sentenced to 1-year imprisonment and fined by the court. A clean-chit was awarded to @TeestaSetalvad.

#India’s National human rights comission described it as a “miscarriage of justice” and, along with other petitioners, argued that the case should be investigated by an independent agency. The #SupremeCourtOfIndia expressed displeasure at the acquittal.

The judgment, called “landmark” by @BBCNew journalist @BBCSanjoyM, brought the case to an end. The case has the legacy of being “one of the country’s most controversial and high profile trials.” On 9 July 2012, the #BombayHighCourt, upheld the life sentences of four accused...,

Sanjay Thakkar, Bahadursingh Chauhan, Sanabhai Baria and Dinesh Rajbhar on the basis of four eyewitness accounts, who were injured bakery employees and identified the accused. It acquitted five accused, Rajubhai Baria, Pankaj Gosavi, Jagdish Rajput...,

...Suresh alias Lalo Devjibhai Vasava and Shailesh Tadvi, for lack of evidence. As per reports it was also discovered that associated with Hindutva outfits like the #RSS, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (#VHP) and the #Bajrang Dal are developing terror networks

in north #Maharashtra targeting the region’s #Muslim population. @amnesty also reported that the police failed to carry out a proper investigation. The police work was shoddy, the complaints were recorded in a defective manner.

The witness statements were not recorded efficiently. The police failed to collect corroborative evidence. The suspects were not responsibly investigated. Despite being a clear case of mob violence in the backdrop of riots the police failed to collect evidence that would have...

...proven to be helpful during the trial in implicating the accused. Zaheera was allegedly intimidated along with her family members which led her to retract her statements that she made in the F.I.R.

This case was one of the first cases which were tried by the courts in relation to the #Gujarat riots (riots which led to a widespread loss of life and property)

Reference
mainstreamweekly.net/article521.html
researchgate.net/publication/30…
milestonesclub.wordpress.com/2020/02/23/god…