The Hindu : National : Supreme Court sets aside bail order in Gujarat riots case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 06, 2004

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Supreme Court sets aside bail order in Gujarat riots case

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5. The Supreme Court today set aside a Gujarat High Court's order granting bail to the seven main accused facing trial before a Mehsana fast track court for burning alive 11 persons at Visnagar during the 2002 communal riots in the State.

A Bench of Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Justice Arijit Pasayat allowed appeals filed by complainant Mohd Iqbal Khan Boloch and the State Government against the impugned High Court order.

The present case is one of the seven sensitive Gujarat riot cases in which the apex court had stayed trial on petitions seeking their transfer outside the State.

Senior counsel for the complainant, Anoop G. Chaudhary, assisted by counsel Shakil Ahmed Syed earlier contended that the High Court was not justified in granting bail to the seven accused who were threatening the witnesses. It was also contended that the apex court had stayed trial of the case and was seized of the matter and so the High Court should not have passed the impugned order. There are 43 other accused facing trial in the case. The complainant in the case was financially supported in his litigation by a local NGO, Jamait-e-Ulma Hind.

— UNI

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