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Nine persons 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 had on February 24 sentenced nine persons to life imprisonment, holding them guilty of murder of 14 persons by setting Best Bakery ablaze 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 Indian Penal Code, 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 judgment by filing a petition in the high court saying that the verdict contained certain remarks against them that were unwarranted.
In the Mumbai court, 17 accused faced the trial on charges of rioting and murdering 14 persons who had taken refuge in the Best Bakery on Hanuman Tekdi at Vadodara on March one, 2002, in the post-Godhra riots. Four other accused could not be tried as they were absconding.
Zaheera Shaikh, prime witness in the case, had moved the Supreme Court alleging that all the 21 accused in the case had been acquitted by the trial court in Gujarat as she had turned hostile because of threats issued to her. The apex court, on April 12, 2004, asked a Mumbai court to conduct the retrial so that the accused were given a fair trial outside Gujarat.