NEW DELHI, 10 August 2004— The Supreme Court yesterday questioned the delay in appointing public prosecutors in the Best Bakery case and asked Gujarat’s government to report within a week what it has done to apprehend the accused in the case.
A bench headed up Justice Arijit Pasayat took exception to the fact that a Gujarat government-appointed public prosecutor had opposed the issue of non-bailable arrest warrants against the accused in the case, which was transferred from Gujarat to Bombay on the orders of the Supreme Court.
“You are showing your true colors right from day one,” the bench said. “What sort of public prosecutor is he who opposes arrest warrants against the accused who do not appear before a court?” it asked.
The bench asked Gujarat’s director general of police to inform it within a week the steps it had taken to produce the accused before the trial court.
Zaheera Sheikh, the prime witness in the case, moved the Supreme Court after both Gujarat and Maharashtra claimed their right to appoint public prosecutors by interpreting the court directions differently.
Social activist Teesta Setalvad took Zaheera`s case to the Supreme Court. The Gujarat government appointed Atul Mehta and T. S. Nanavati as prosecutors for the case after the Supreme Court directed re-trial of the case in Maharashtra. Maharashtra appointed P. R. Vakil, Manjula Rao, Zaheruddin Shaikh and S.M. Vora as prosecutors.
Fourteen people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the carnage in Best Bakery in Baroda on March 1, 2002 in the wake of post-Godhra communal violence.
Out of the 11 people arrested in the case since the Supreme Court ordered a re-trial, one person has been granted bail while the remaining 10 are in judicial custody. Although a fast track court tried 21 accused, they were acquitted since witnesses turned hostile. The Gujarat High Court also upheld the lower court order acquitting the accused.
Meanwhile, BJP President Venkiah Naidu said his party’s defeat in the recent elections was not caused by the Gujarat rioting, but due to the failure of its slogan on development and inability to project the inadequacies of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
