A Mumbai court has acquited two of the accused- Harshad Raoji Bhai Solanki and Mafat Manilal Gohil- in the Best Bakery case. Fourteen people were killed at the famous Best Bakery on March 1, 2002, following an attack by a mob comprising over 1,000 people during Godhra riots. Following the incident bakery owner's daughter, Zaheera Sheikh had lodged a police complaint against 21 people. In June 2003, when the fast-track court acquitted all the accused, it pointed to a lack of evidence as key witnesses, including Sheikh, had turned hostile.
The duo – Harshad Solanki and Mafat Gohil – were acquitted of all the charges by Additional Sessions Judge M G Deshpande. In the first phase of the trial in the Best Bakery case, the Mumbai sessions court in February 2006 convicted nine of the 17 people accused of murder.
In 2012, the Bombay High Court acquitted five of those convicted for want of evidence but upheld the conviction of four others, who had been sentenced to life by the trial court.
On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra carnage, a mob attacked Best Bakery in Vadodara, looting and burning it down and killing 14 people. The mob targeted the Muslims inside, including the Shaikh family that ran the bakery.
In 2003, as many as 19 people were acquitted after the conclusion of the trial in a local court. Later, their acquittal was confirmed by the Gujarat High Court.
One of the victims, Zahirabibi Shaikh, along with an NGO, moved the Supreme Court against the judgement.
Solanki and Gohil were shown absconding in the Best Bakery case as they were facing trial in the Ajmer blast case.
They were produced before the Mumbai court in 2017 to face trial in this case after the conclusion of the blast case trial. Two other accused died during the course of the retrial and the case against them abated.
Advocate Prakash Salsinkar, Solanki and Gohil's lawyer, said the acquittal was expected as there was no substantial evidence against the two.
“The eyewitnesses in the case did not recognize the accused during the trial. It means that the accused had no role in that riot,” he said.
Both are currently lodged at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai and likely to walk out of prison in a day or two after the completion of formalities, the lawyer added.
The Best Bakery massacre was part of the communal violence that erupted in Gujarat after a mob set fire to a coach of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra on February 27, 2002, killing 56 persons.