Ahmedabad, June 28: The acquittal of all 21 accused in the best bakery carnage by a local court in Vadodara has come under attack by non-government organisations, one of which has even termed yesterday's judgement day as "Black Letter Day.” "We observe with shock the verdict in the well-known best bakery case and this judgement is a Black Letter Day in the annals of judiciary", said Dwarikanath Rath, secretary of Gujarat state organising committee of Socialist Unity Centre of India, in a statement here today. In the first ever trial in cases of post-Godhra communal violence, a local court in Vadodara had yesterday acquitted 21 accused for want of evidence even as 39 of the 79 witnesses including key witness and complainant Zahira Sheikh had turned hostile at the fag end of the hearing. "The way the witnesses turned hostile and were compelled to buy peace at any cost, exposes the present state of affairs in Gujarat under Narendra Modi's government", Rath alleged.


Another NGO--Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD) said, in a statement that the "judgement is going to set, to say the least an unfortunate precedent."


"The best bakery judgement is on anticipated line after the witnesses turned hostile under obvious reasons. Worst fears have come true and the very apprehensions under which the National Human Rights Commission wanted CBI to intervene, are more than confirmed now", MSD Convenor Prakash Shah said.
"Apart from secular fabric, the very idea of the rule of law and a just society stand shattered", Shah added.

Bureau Report