New Delhi: A sessions court in Mumbai Tuesday acquitted Harshad Solanki and Mafat Gohil who were booked in the 2002 Best Bakery case in Gujarat and ordered their release.
Around 14 people were killed in Vadodara’s Best Bakery following an attack by a mob during the communal violence that rocked Gujarat in 2002. A complaint was subsequently lodged by the bakery owner’s daughter, Zaheera Sheikh, against 21 people.
A trial took place in Gujarat in 2003 where all 21 accused were acquitted. But a retrial was ordered by the Supreme Court in Mumbai in 2004. Solanki and Gohil were said to be absconding during this retrial in Mumbai, and were arrested again in 2013.
During the first retrial in Mumbai, 9 people were found guilty by a Mumbai court and 12 were acquitted, when the verdict came out in 2006. In 2012, again, the Bombay High Court acquitted 5 out of the 9 accused who had appealed, while the remaining 4 were pronounced guilty.
After being arrested in 2013, Solanki and Gohil’s trial proceedings began in 2019. The prosecution largely relied on eyewitness accounts that were used in the 2004 retrial in Mumbai. The defendants, represented by advocate Prakash Salsingikar, were allowed to cross-examine the eyewitnesses on the grounds of identification.