Vadodara, June 06: Doctors who conducted post-mortem on bodies of 12 victims in the Best Bakery massacre in Vadodara during the post-Godhra riots, today said five of the victims had died of severe burn injuries and the hand of one was missing. Three doctors of the SSG hospital, S Basu, K S Chavle and Sherkhan Pathan, were summoned to present their findings during post-mortem of victims at the fast track court of H U Mahida here.

The doctors said post-mortem conducted on five of the bodies indicated that they had died of severe burns and that arm of one of the victim had been severed.

They also observed that the bones of these victims had gone weak and were yellow in colour by the time of examination.

The fast track court magistrate decided that further hearing of the case would continue tomorrow.

Three more doctors had earlier also given their statement before the court regarding their findings during post-mortem of riot victims in the same case.

However, the entire case took an unexpected turn last month when crucial eyewitness and complainant Zaheera Sheikh turned hostile along with other family members.

Twelve persons were burnt alive in the Bakery premises and two were reported missing on March 1, 2002 during a bandh call given by VHP and Bajrang Dal leader following the massascre of 58 ram sevaks on board the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra Railway Station on February 27.

Bureau Report