"Prosecution Miserably Failed": Court Acquits 2002 Gujarat Mob Attack Accused

The prosecution failed to prove the link of accused Harshad Solanki and Mafat Gohil with the 2002 mob attack on Best Bakery in Vadodara during which 14 people were killed, the trial court in Mumbai has held while acquitting them.

Additional sessions judge MG Deshpande on Tuesday acquitted Mr Solanki and Mr Gohil of all charges. The detailed order became available on Wednesday.

No specific role was attributed to these two accused, the court said in the judgement.

On March 1, 2002, two days after 56 persons died in the Godhra train burning incident, a mob attacked Best Bakery in Vadodara city of Gujarat and killed 14 people, most of them Muslim, who had taken shelter inside.

In 2003, 21 people facing trial in the case were acquitted by a court in Vadodara. Later, their acquittal was confirmed by the Gujarat High Court. When one of the victims, Zahirabibi Shaikh, along with an NGO moved the Supreme Court against the judgment, the top court ordered a retrial in Mumbai.

In the first phase of the trial, the Mumbai sessions court in February 2006 convicted nine of the 17 people accused of murder. But Mr Solanki and Mr Gohil were shown missing as they were facing trial in the Ajmer blast case.

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

The Mumbai sessions court re-examined 10 witnesses including the injured eye-witnesses while conducting the second phase of the trial.

There was nothing to prove that both accused were "part of the mob, committed riot and further set Best Bakery to fire," the court said.

"Even if, homicidal and unnatural death of fourteen people in the said incident is not much disputed...The prosecution miserably failed to establish and prove nexus of these accused persons with the said incident," the judge noted.

While Best Bakery was set to fire at night, those who had taken shelter on its terrace were asked to come down a ladder in the morning. As per the witnesses who were injured, once they came down, their hands and feet were tied and they were assaulted with sticks and swords.

But there were contradictions and omissions in the evidence of these injured eyewitnesses who were re-examined, the judge said.

"...there is absolutely no substantive evidence against these two accused persons that they were armed with sword and iron pipe at the time of both incidents - night as well as morning," the court said.

None of the injured eyewitnesses stated that these two accused caused them the injuries, it noted.

Investigating officer Popatlal Kanani, who was re-examined, did not say a word as to whether weapons were "discovered and found" at the place as stated by the accused, the court said.

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