Supreme Court Damns Gujarat Government Over Riot Case

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3102864.stm

BBC News
Friday, 12 September, 2003, 14:37 GMT 15:37 UK  

Court raps Gujarat over riot case
 
India's Supreme Court has launched a scathing attack on the
authorities in the state of Gujarat over their handling of a riot last
year in which 12 Muslims were burned to death in a bakery by a Hindu
mob.
 
"I have no faith left in the prosecution and the Gujarat Government,"
Chief Justice VN Khare said on Friday.

Twenty-one Hindus were acquitted of killing the Muslims in a
controversial ruling last June after many of the prosecution witnesses
withdrew their evidence.

The incident came during rioting in Gujarat in which more than 1,000
people, most of them Muslims, were killed.

"Eyewash"

The Supreme Court issued its comments on the Gujarat government on
Friday, while hearing a petition from India's Human Rights Commission
which is demanding a retrial in what has become known as the Best
Bakery case, named after the bakery in the city of Baroda where the
Muslims died.

"If you fail to act then we will have to step in. We are not sitting
here as mere spectators", Chief Justice Khare said.

And the three Supreme Court judges ordered the head of police in
Gujarat and the state's top civil servant, the chief secretary, to
appear before the court to explain their role in the controversy. to
it has ordered

Human rights groups say the Best Bakery case is an example of how
there has been little justice in Gujarat for the victims of last years
riots.

Many Muslims in Gujarat now say they live in fear. 

One of the witnesses, 19-years-old Zahira Sheikh, later fled the
state.

She then said she had lied in court and not testified against the
accused because she had been threatened by senior figures in the local
organisation of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

After that, the Gujarat Government, led by Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, launched an appeal against the acquittals in the Best Bakery
case.

But the federal supreme court was damning in its consideration of Mr
Modi's government's appeal, dismissing it as "an eyewash".

"You quit if you cannot prosecute the guilty. Democracy does not mean
that you will not prosecute anyone," Chief Justice Khare said.

Request rejected 

The court said it was the duty of the authorities to protect the
people and punish the offenders but in this case it appeared that the
state government did not perform its duty properly.
 
Zahira Sheikh is demanding a retrial after she said she feared for her
life

"You haven't started re-investigation or re-examination," the court
told the Gujarat state government lawyer.

The state government, represented by Additional Solicitor General
Mukul Rohatgi, said many riots have taken place in the country in the
last 40 years with the guilty going unpunished.

He cited the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and said many of the accused are
still free.

The counsel then asked the court to give the government some more time
so that it could amend its appeal challenging the acquittal of the
Best Bakery accused.

But the court rejected his request. 

The riots began after a suspected Muslim mob attacked a train and
killed nearly 60 Hindu passengers.

The authorities in Gujarat have been accused of not stopping Hindu
mobs taking revenge on Muslims.