E-Paper
Best Bakery | Nine convicts move court
On Feb 24, a Mumbai court had awarded life sentence to the nine for the murder of 14 people during post-Godhra riots.
Nine people sentenced to life imprisonment in the Best Bakery case have filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction by a Mumbai court.
The appeal was filed on Wednesday and would come up for hearing in due course.
A Mumbai court on February 24 had sentenced nine people to life imprisonment, holding them guilty of murder of 14 people by setting Best Bakery afire during the post-Godhra riots.
The verdict was delivered by Judge Abhay Thipsay, who, in addition to life imprisonment, had awarded jail terms to the convicts ranging from one year to ten years on various counts under IPC including rioting, unlawful assembly for causing grievous hurt, voluntarily causing hurt and being part of an unlawful assembly armed with explosives.
The judge had ruled that these one to 10 year sentences would run concurrently and after serving these terms, the convicts will undergo their life term.
The court had also issued notices to key witnesses, Zaheera Shaikh, her mother Sehrunissa, two brothers Nasibullah and Nafitullah and sister Sahira, who had turned hostile asking them to show cause why they should not be prosecuted for perjury (giving false evidence).
Except Nafitullah, who passed away, all were tried for perjury and convicted by the same court.
Zaheera and her family have also challenged the Best Bakery judgement by filing a petition in the high court saying the verdict contains certain remarks against them, which were unwarranted.
