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By J. Venkatesan
A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice Arun Kumar, issued notice by treating the Commission's special leave petition against the Vadodara trial court's order as a public interest litigation petition as the Gujarat Government has also filed an appeal in the High Court. On June 27, the fast track court of H.U. Mahida acquitted all the 21 accused in the case on the ground that there was no evidence to prove their guilt. The court pulled up the prosecution for "shoddy investigation". Subsequently, the key witness, Zaheera Sheikh, approached the Commission seeking its intervention for re-opening of the case. The Bench directed the Gujarat Government to furnish within two weeks the statement of the witnesses given to police before the trial court, the memo of the grounds of appeal filed by the State in the High Court and the names of the lawyers appearing for the State Government in the appeal. It directed the Government to provide protection to the witnesses and their families. Further, the Gujarat Government was asked to inform the court of the steps it had taken to protect the victims and their family members and the action taken against those who had allegedly threatened the witnesses. When it was submitted by counsel for Gujarat that the State had filed the appeal, the Bench said: "Though we cannot undermine our courts and the High Court in Gujarat, we would not allow the appeal to be `mere eyewash", and added that it would monitor the trial. Senior counsel for the Commission, P.P. Rao, drew the court's attention to the trial court's order, which had indicted the prosecution that people had been falsely accused and totally false evidence had been created against the accused. He said in this case, in which 14 persons were killed, 37 witnesses had turned hostile resulting in the acquittal of the 21 accused. He said the trial had sent a wrong message to the nation and people abroad were aghast at the criminal justice system in the country. He said only the apex court could remove this blot on the system by ordering a fresh investigation and retrial of the case outside Gujarat. Mr. Rao recalled the Commission's report last year in which the State was urged to transfer the critical cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation. But the State Government said the authority of the State police could not be undermined and refused to transfer the cases. He said: "what we had apprehended had come true. If the other cases are also allowed to be held in Gujarat they will see the same fate." Another senior counsel, T.R. Andhyarujina, assisted by S. Muralidhar, explained the circumstances in which Ms. Zahira turned hostile as her life and the lives of her other family members were threatened. He said the witnesses who had turned hostile should be allowed to narrate the bloodbath they saw during the riots and this could be done only if they were given protection as was done in other countries. The Judges said: "It is alleged that (the) conviction rate in criminal cases in the country has gone down. Most of the sessions trial in sensitive cases do not start until all the witnesses are won over." It, therefore, directed the Centre and the State to submit within two weeks whether any scheme had been formulated by it pursuant to the recommendations of the Justice Malimath Committee on revamping criminal justice system. The Bench, however, did not pass any order on the Commission's another petition seeking transfer of four other serious cases relating to the Godhra, Chamanpura and Naroda Patiya incidents and the Sadarpura case in Mehsana district for their trial outside Gujarat. It said this transfer petition would be tagged on with the main petition.
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