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Best Bakery Update
June 2, 2004 | Comments Off on Best Bakery Update
In the Best Bakery case, the Maharasthra Law Minister Govindrao Adik has said that the Gujarat government must appoint the public prosecutor for the retrial in Maharasthra. The Best Bakery case, involving the burning deaths of 12 Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat pogroms against Muslims, was transferred to Maharasthra by an order of the Supreme Court passed in April:
Mr. Adik told The Hindu that the Gujarat police were still investigating the case and therefore the Gujarat Government has to appoint the public prosecutor.
“We are only providing the facilities for the case to be retried — the Gujarat Government is still the whole and soul of the case and it has to take this decision,” he added.
However, Mihir Desai, the advocate who is representing Zaheera Sheikh in the case in the Supreme Court, said that ideally, Maharashtra should appoint the public prosecutor but the apex court’s order was vague on the issue of who should do so.
According to Mr. Desai, the Supreme Court order also grants leave for the complainants in the Best Bakery case to have a say in the appointment of the prosecutor, given the “unusual factors in this case.” Zahira Sheikh’s father owned the Bakery and he was burned to death, with other members of her family. Zahira had filed a petition after the dismissal of the Best Bakery case by the Gujarat High Court. She stated that she had lied in court and turned hostile, because of threats from senior officials in the local organization of the BJP.
The Gujarat section of the blog has recent news on cases arising from the 2002 pogroms.
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