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Witnesses won over, admits Gujarat DGP

By J. Venkatesan

New Delhi Sept. 19. The Director-General of Gujarat Police, K. Chakravarthi, today admitted in the Supreme Court that the witnesses in the Best Bakery case turned hostile as they were "won over", resulting in the acquittal of all the 21 accused.

The DGP, however, gave an assurance to the three-Judge Bench comprising the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice S.B. Sinha, that an amended appeal would soon be filed before the High Court.

Describing a State Government appeal as "eyewash", the Bench had on September 12 summoned the Chief Secretary and the DGP to personally explain the lapse in filing it.

Today the Chief Justice grilled the DGP and the Chief Secretary, P.K. Laheri, on how they had allowed all the witnesses to turn hostile and did not take steps to recall and question them again.

The DGP told the CJI that he was informed by the Baroda Police Commissioner that the witnesses in the case were "coerced and won over" by the accused. However, there were no bogus accused in the case as alleged by the trial court.

The Chief Secretary told the CJI that the Advocate-General had been personally asked to amend the appeal which would be filed before the High Court soon. The Additional Solicitor-General, Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the Gujarat Government said the Chief Secretary had filed an affidavit stating that the appeal would be argued by the Advocate-General. The Government, in consultation with the Advocate-General, was in the process of appointing special public prosecutors to conduct the prosecution of the cases which would be supervised and monitored by an officer of the rank of Inspector-General of Police.

Permitting the State to file an amended appeal within two weeks, the Judges, however, warned that they would not allow the mistake committed before the trial court to be repeated before the High Court. The Judges made it clear that the court would appoint a senior advocate as amicus curiae to assist the prosecution and monitor the progress of the case.

The Chief Justice said that "we are not bypassing the High Court. We want the matter to be seriously prosecuted as it should be", and adjourned the proceedings to October 9.

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